The Year of the Smaragd Slytherin
by Stefan Lee Salvatore
Summary: Sequel to The Year there was a Handicapped Slytherin. The Slytherins think they have dealt with their pasts, but what happens when their past confronts them? In the version of a school they have been transferred to? Vespera's friends travel back to Germany with Erikk, but will they make it back safe? -work in progress during HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban-
1. Prologue

When Jaelah, Sam, Erikk, and myself arrived back at Hogwarts, we went our usual ways to our common rooms.

Little did we know, this journey would be the turning point for the rest of our lives.

We were all going to be changed from the events that would occur the rest of the year, and these events could help us, or kill us.

I've began thinking that I will end up dead before the next year is over, especially being put into this situation as a muggleborn.

Jaelah and I, we don't regret our decision because we knew that it was bound to occur. Thankfully, we were at the top of our studies and knew that we could do anything, even in our time here during our third year.

With the break out of Sirius Black, a supposed murderer, the wizarding world was all in a twist. People were terrified of going outside, afraid to be murdered.

No matter what happens this next year, when we wake up tomorrow morning, the world will be very different.

 **Welcome readers to book 3 of Vespera Salazar!**

 **You should have read book 1: Vespera Salazar and the Year There was a Muggle Slytherin (check title) and book 2: The Year There was a Handicapped Slytherin, prior to reading this book 3: The Year of the Smaragd Slytherin.**

 **I'm excited to give this out to you guys, because the first 5 chapters are already written (because year 3 was being began on before year 2 was even made), and will be posted over a period of time, as to prevent long gaps of no chapters. Hopefully.**

 **In addition, please be warned that this is a serious fanfiction, sorta, and as such, will have serious situations, on occasion. This is a trigger warning, and upon each chapter that may bring up memories or thoughts, we will put a ***WARNING. WARNING. WARNING*** Because we don't know exactly where our characters will come at for their stories (that will start begin shown around chapter 6), we give this warning to you, just in case.**

 **Reviews are always appreciated.**

 **Huge thanks to Jaelah who helps me out with this madness. :)**

 **Note from Jaelah: I am sometimes the cause of the crazy madness.**

 **Note from us: We don't own Harry Potter or it's Characters.  
BUT GOODNESS SAKES WE OWN VESPERA AND JAELAH AND STEIN AND IT WILL BE GREAT BECAUSE MOST OF THIS IS OURS.**


	2. Chapter 1: Not Hogwarts!

**Sorry for making ya'll wait so long!**

 **Thanks to Jaelah for helping out :) and I don't own anything except for my characters... and the plot of this book...**

 **Enjoy! Review :)**

* * *

It was nearing the end of the summer and I anxiously awaited for my Hogwarts letter. I kept looking out the window every five seconds. At one point, Draco came to me, "Vespera, if you keep hanging out that window you're going to fall and hurt yourself again."

I glared at him, "Shut up." He then ran away, as I burst into laughter. I awkwardly walked down the hall and into the dining room for breakfast. "Good morning Mother, Father." I said, as I kissed them on the cheek.

"Good morning, Vespera," Lucius replied, reading the Daily Prophet.

I looked at the paper, "Who's on the front page?"

"Just some Azkaban escapee. They'll catch him." Father said with no emotion.

"Sirius Black? Isn't Black a family name on your side, Mother? Yes, I'm almost certain. You have that picture of Regulus Black and say he was your favorite cousin. Why, this fellow is probably only a few years older than Regulus, a brother perhaps? Who is this man?" I asked Mother this time, knowing that she'd probably answer. Although, I knew who he was. I had spent a month caged up beside this man, a man who was wrongfully accused. I was glad he had escaped finally. Maybe he would get to see his godson.

"Yes, he was my cousin. The family disowned him when he ran away. He was a Gryffindor, a traitor to the family. He was sent to Azkaban for murdering the Potters and some muggles. Sentenced to a lifetime in Azkaban. He'll be found soon and put back. No worries dear." She smiled at me, "Now eat some breakfast."

That was when, the post came in. Narcissa pulled it off of the owl's foot, then began handing out mail, while most of it was for her and Lucius, she handed a piece of mail to Draco, "My Hogwarts letter," he said grinning at me, because Mother handed him his first. She finished sorting through the mail, and handed me a piece at the very end.

"What? This isn't my Hogwarts letter! Why did Draco get his, and I didn't?! They give all the students their letters at the same time! What kind of rubbish is this!" I yelled.

"Vespera Azalea Salazar-Malfoy, you will not yell like that at the table. I'm sure it's just a miscommunication. We will speak to Severus when he arrives tomorrow. Until then, you are to behave. Understood?" Lucius scolded me.

I nodded, "Yes sir, sorry." I frowned. I then looked at my single piece of mail. It was on muggle parchment, an odd thing for Owl Mail.

It was in a muggle envelope, and I ripped the paper, to open it. Once I got it _opened, I realized, I couldn't read any of the letter._

 _Stein Zauberei_

 _Liebe Miss Vespera Azalea Salazar-Malfoy,_

 _Wir bitte um Sie, dass Sie wurden ausgewählt, um die Schule in unserem Transfer-Programm teilnehmen zu informieren._

 _Anbei finden Sie eine Liste aller benötigten Bücher und Ausrüstungs. Die Laufzeit beginnt am 15. August. Wir erwarten Ihre Eule spätestens 20. Juli._

 _Mit freundlichen Grüßen,_

 _Alarick Knolle_

 _Schulleiter_

 _The Second Page Read:_

 _Stein Zauberei_

 _Drei Sätze Plain schwarzen Roben_

 _Einer Formal Cloak_

 _Ein Paar Schutzhandschuhe (Drachenhaut oder ähnlich)_

 _Ein Paar gepolsterte Handschuhe_

 _Drei Wintermantel_

 _Eine Wand Holster_

 _Ein Paar von Stahlstiefel_

 _Alle Schuhe müssen geschlossen sein_

 _Alle Bücher werden von der Schule zur Verfügung gestellt werden._

 _SONSTIGE GERÄTE_

 _1 Zauberstab_

 _1 Kessel (Zinn, Standard-Größe 2)_

 _1 Satz Glas oder Kristall Phiolen_

 _1 Satz Messingskalen_

 _I had picked out a few things from the letter including:_

 _It was from Stein Zauberei, or as I liked to call it the school Erikk came from._

 _It was meant to be to me, as it had my name on the top._

 _This was about some kind of transfer program._

 _There were two dates, July 20th, and August 15th._

 _There was some sort of list attached_

 _I threw the letter down, "I thought not getting a Hogwarts Letter was rubbish, but this is even more rubbish! I can't bloody read it!"_

 _Lucius held out his hand and I handed it to him. He nodded as if he understood every word of it. He pulled out his wand, tapped the letter, then handed it back to me._

 _Now, all of it was in English, and it read:_

 _Dear Miss Vespera Azalea Salazar-Malfoy,_

 _We are please to inform you that you have been selected to attend school in our transfer program._

 _Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on the 15th of August. We await your owl by no later than the 20th of July._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Alarick Knolle_

 _Headmaster_

 _The second page read:_

 _Stein Zauberei_

 _Three sets of plain black robes_

 _One formal cloak_

 _One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

 _One pair of padded gloves_

 _Three winter cloaks_

 _One wand holster_

 _One pair of steel boots_

 _All shoes must be closed._

 _All Books will be provided by the school._

 _OTHER EQUIPMENT_

 _1 wand_

 _1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

 _1 set glass or crystal phials_

 _1 set of brass scales_

I looked at it, "Really? Stein Zauberei seemed like such a boring school, at least for what I read about it. It specializes in cooking and battle. How much fun can that even be? Plus, it's obviously on a different schedule than Hogwarts. How will I keep up with my studies?" I sighed, and sat the letter down. "Obviously, everyone already plans for me going here without my knowledge. As I didn't get a Hogwarts letter, I guess Dumbledore already knows about this."

Lucius looked at me, "You have a friend who went there. Why don't you ask him how his former school is? Perhaps you'll have a new perspective of it. You will owl them back and accept your position there, as it is rude not to. Go run and do it after breakfast, they expect a reply by the end of the day. Understand?"

I nodded, "Yes sir." I sat and ate the rest of my breakfast in silence, then went upstairs. I wrote in english:

Dear Headmaster Alarick Knolle,

I am grateful for the opportunity to attend this school. Thank you for my acceptance, and I look forward to arriving on August 15th.

Sincerely,

Vespera A. Salazar-Malfoy

I then pulled out a piece of paper, and wrote on it:

" _We need to talk. You, the boy, and me. My house. Let me know when._

 _~V."_

I then told the owl that was waiting, "Take this to Stein Zauberei, and this to Jaelah."

The owl hooted, then flew away.

I went and got ready for the day, putting on a black skirt and purple shirt. I pulled my hair into a french braid, although it still wasn't very long. I slid on a pair of stockings, to help hide the work of art that were my braces, and a pair of flats, then went downstairs.

"Vespera, dear. We're going to Diagon Alley. Go grab your cloak." I nodded, then went back upstairs. My parents accepted that I couldn't walk without the extra support still, but they couldn't have their name marked as having a girl with weird things on her legs. I grabbed my black cloak with silver sparkles, getting a look from Draco.

"Sparkles." He mumbled, as I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Let's go, children," Lucius said. I took his arm before Draco could and so Draco took Narcissa's arm.

Once we arrived, our parents let us go off alone, assuming we wouldn't get in trouble. "I'm not spending the entire day with you Salazar. Go find your own friends." Draco turned away, and walked off. I rolled my eyes. When I saw him approach Crabbe and Goyle, I knew I had no hopes of spending time with him.

I decided I would go into muggle London as my parents didn't say I couldn't, then again, they weren't totally telling me anything. The past week was the first time I had really even talked to them all summer.

I went to the barrier and walked through, after tapping the bricks. I pulled off my cloak, and shrunk it into my pocket. Muggles wouldn't find braces weird. I then walked outside the building, and entered muggle London. It was a lot how I remembered it: busy streets, people rushing every which way. No one really watching where they were going.

I began walking around, looking at all the muggle things that had come around since I had been in wizarding London. "Vespera?" I heard. I then felt someone's hand on my shoulder, and I jerked around. "It is you! Vespera! Where have you been all this time! It's been years!"

I was wrapped into a hug by a mysterious girl. "Um, do I know you?"

She pulled back, "You don't remember me? I thought we were friends? It's me, Bailey. We only went to school together for years! I thought we were friends, but then when you didn't show up for school. I called your house and your mum answered saying you had went off to some boarding school and that she disowned you for being so stuck up or something. Do you really not remember me?"

I tilted my head, then smiled, "Oh! I'm sorry, Bailey. It has been years and you look different."

"Well, how have you been? Do you want to go grab lunch with me?" I nodded and she continued talking, "So where is your school? Friends? Who do you live with when you're on vacation? Why is your hair short?"

"You know, I'd answer if you'd let me get a few words out of my mouth. I've been quite well. My school is in Scotland, it's quite hidden away though, and very secretive, so I can't quite tell you where it is." She pouted, and I continued, "I have a lot of friends. Let's see.. Jaelah is probably my best friend, then there's Amelia, and Erikk, most of the girls in my year I'm friends with too. Then there's the Weasley twins, and their entire family, except for the youngest brother. Oh, I also found my family. I was adopted you know? It turns out my family was killed, except I have a brother, who is alive and well, and happened to show up at the same school, how's that for luck?"

Bailey grinned at me, "That's great Vespera." We both ordered lunch, and she continued, "What's he look like?"

I pulled out a picture of Sam, Fred, and George. "His name is Samuel. He's the one that isn't a twin."

She nodded, "He looks very attractive."

I shook my head, "Hands off. No dating family members."

"So is that who you live with? His family?"

I once again shook my head, "I was adopted by another family when I went shopping for school supplies actually. They found me and I stayed with them until school started. I became friends with their son and then by Christmas, they adopted me into the Malfoy family." I smiled, "They're a really great family."

"That's wonderful Vespera, but why short hair?"

"Fred did it, one of the twins. We had a bit of a mishap during a lesson and I had to chop it off," the lie just rolled off my tongue. My hair just wasn't growing back very quickly at all.

"Well it looks nice on you. School is so boring without you. No one is there to cause trouble. Plus, you were the one always good at sports. Our school teams had been looking forward to you, but now they're stuck with me, and I'm not that good."

"Sure you are Bailey. Maybe one day our schools will compete against each other and we can see how much better you've gotten, okay?" I knew it was impossible, but we had to keep the appearance going.

She smiled, "Sounds like a plan." The bell rang on the door and she looked over my shoulder. "Ooo Vespera, there is a handsome boy walking in. Haven't seen him before. He's quite cute. Hair that blond is rare, odd that you both have it."

At the sound of blonde I groaned, "Blond hair, gray eyes, really pale, about five and a half feet tall?"

She nodded, "Yeah, great description of him, you see his reflection?" She continued talking, "Oh look, he's headed our way. He must think I'm cute or something!"

"Hello Ladies." I looked up at Draco and sighed.

Bailey glared at me, with a look saying 'He's mine.' "Hello sir, nice weather today isn't it?"

He nodded, "It certainly is, very beautiful." He wasn't paying her a single bit of attention. I knew that he knew she had a quick crush on him, and he was trying to make her jealous.

"Okay, enough with the act!" I pointed to the chair next to me, "Sit!" I demanded.

He sat next to me and looked at Bailey, "So, you're an interesting sort aren't you?"

"Interesting sort? Whatever do you mean?"

"Well obviously, you think you're all that, but you're really nothing." He smirked, "If she," he pointed at me, "can tell me that you have more than me, then maybe you'll be something."

I glared at him, then looked at Bailey, "I'm sorry for his behavior, Bailey."

"Why are you apologizing for his behavior? He's a stranger. Quite frankly I don't know why you bothered to invite him to sit. He's quite rude isn't he?"

I nodded, "He is. He's quite a prat actually."

"Rude? A Prat? Who do you think you are, talking about me like I'm not even here!" Draco raged on us.

"Draco, why are you here anyways?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but Bailey talked first, "Draco? You know this fellow? Oh. I get it, he must be your boyfriend. No wonder he was giving you those looks earlier. Why didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend, Vespera!?"

Draco looked at me, "Oh yes, I'm always going on dates with Vespera. However, she doesn't want to announce our undying love for each other to the world. She thinks I'd find her disgusting if she did," he leaned over to kiss my cheek and I shoved him away.

"I think anyone would be lucky to date Vespera. Not disgusting at all!" She smiled at me, "You two would be adorable together. Why don't you make it official Vespera?"

I jabbed Draco in the side, making him start laughing, "Don't do that Vespera! That hurts!"

"Once you start behaving and stop making up lies, I'll stop poking." I continued poking him.

"Okay! I give." I stopped and smiled at him as he continued talking, "but, you would be adorable for someone to date."

I smiled at Bailey, "I really am sorry for his behavior. Draco, this is Bailey. She's a friend of mine from the school my mum had me going to before."

He nodded his head, "It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Bailey. I hope you have some embarrassing stories of Vespera's?"

She grinned, "I have loads! We practically grew up together."

I stopped her, "He's not my boyfriend so please stop before you say something stupid."

She shook her head, "Stop denying you're in love Vespera. I can see it, the way you two pick on each other. That and he came in here looking for you."

I slammed my head on the table. "Bailey, I would like to introduce you to Draco Malfoy."

She smiled, "Well he has a full name now. It's nice to meet you Draco. I hope you two have a long and happy future together."

Draco began laughing up a storm, and I groaned, "Bailey. Malfoy. He's not my boyfriend. He's my brother. I was adopted into his family. I just told you this!"

She rolled her eyes, "I don't beleive you for a second."

"It's true!" I said, trying not to get annoyed at her. The bell rang again and I heard footsteps coming from behind us.

"Draco, I thought we told you to find - " Narcissa stopped talking when she saw Bailey, "Oh hello dear. I'm really sorry to be interrupting your lunch. Probably just catching up with each other aren't you?" Bailey nodded, "Well, I'm going to have to take these two away now. We really do need to be getting home. I had sent my son in here to find his sister, but it seems he can't follow directions." She smiled at Bailey, "it was a pleasure meeting you. Vespera, Draco, hurry along. Your father is waiting."

With that she went out the door, I shoved Draco out of the booth, "Go Draco! You know Father doesn't like waiting. I'm going to hear enough from him for sneaking off."

Bailey looked at us, "So you really are siblings. Huh." She stood and hugged me again, "It was nice catching up to you, Vespera. I hope to see you again soon!"

I nodded, "Good bye, Bailey." I then dragged Draco away.

When we got to the shop, and back into Wizarding London, we were welcomed by an angry Lucius. "Home. Now." I grabbed his arm and we began the lecture about how I wasn't to go into the filthy muggle London, no matter how much I missed it.

When I arrived back home, there was an owl from Jaelah, who had agreed that Erikk and her would come over the next day. I told my parents and they allowed it.

I realized later, that never once did Bailey ask me what happened to my legs. Maybe leg braces were even less noticeable in the muggle world than I thought.

This being the ending of my fairly interesting day.

* * *

 **I'll try to make you guys not wait so long next time!**


	3. Chapter 2: What It's All About

**Welcome back to another chapter!**

 **To the reviewers who asked questions:**

 **Guest: Smaragd means Emerald. It will make more sense once we get further into the story line (or within the next few chapters hopefully).**

 **It's almost at the point where I won't have to say this... But I don't own the characters of HP, only JK Rowling has that privilege.**

 **Thanks to Jaelah for the help in everything 3**

 **ON TO THE STORY!**

* * *

The next day arrived, and with that, so did Jaelah and Erikk. The two had grown fairly close to each other over the little time we had been off from school. I shook my head at their adorableness.

They appeared right after breakfast, coming through the floo. I looked at them, "You two are a mess."

Draco came around the corner and Jaelah waved at him, "Hi Draco."

His eyes opened wide, "Bye, Jaelah!" He then ran off upstairs, leaving us laughing.

"Come on, we can go out on the lawn." I grabbed my wand, and the letter, and followed them out.

Once we had all sat, Jaelah spoke up, "So what's all this about?"

"I didn't get a Hogwarts letter. Draco did. Apparently, I'm going to Stein Zauberei this year. I wanted to know what it was like, because quite frankly, it seems odd."

Jaelah grinned, "I didn't want to say anything, but I'm going too! I got the letter yesterday and I hoped that you would get one too, but if you didn't I wasn't going to tell you! THIS IS SO EXCITING!"

I glared at Jaelah, "So what were you going to do come time for Hogwarts, and I was there and you weren't? What the heck Jaelah!"

She giggled, "Well, I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. I would have figured something out. Or pretended I was dead or something."

Erikk looked up at us, nervously, but not saying anything, letting us ramble at each other. I looked at him, "So Knolle, tell us about your old school."

He laid backwards, "I was hoping that you wouldn't get the letters, and that you would never step foot in that school."

"Why? What's wrong with it?" Jaelah asked.

He sighed, "I'm supposed to go back to it this year too, because I went to Hogwarts for a year, and they decided they should have me back at Stein in case one of the Hogwarts students got lost or something."

"So how is this so wrong? You don't want to spend another year with me?" Jaelah said poking his side.

"No, spending time with you is great, but you don't need any more evil." He smiled at her, then kissed her cheek.

"Evil? How is cooking and battle evil?" I asked.

"Well you see, the third years are the ones who start with mostly battle courses. Dark Arts mainly. That and a lot of physical training. The only reason Stein gets jokes, while schools like Durmstrang don't, is because they have the cooking courses as well. The cooking isn't all good though. Sure, the first two years we learn to cook an awesome casserole, but the third year, we start getting creative. The things we cook may make a person explode once it gets in touch with human saliva or maybe it will poison them. Stein raises wizards and witches to kill, not to become chefs and not to become fighters." He sighed, "It's kind of a rough time. Not many make it to their 7th year. My first year there, only 5 people finished the year. Every year starts with 32 students, 4 girls and 4 boys for each house."

I gulped, "That sounds horrifying. So you're saying, we may go there, and end up dying?"

He shook his head, "Not many third year students die. They get killed during year 5."

Jaelah nodded, "Then we'll benefit from this. We'll come back to Hogwarts for our fourth year and be much more ready for whatever happens."

"Do you guys really have to go? I mean, you could deny it?"

I shook my head, "I already wrote my letter saying I would attend."

"Same here." Jaelah grinned, "you're stuck with us."

He slid his hand down his face, looking more stressed than usual, "Fine. How about we head up there on August 1st? I can show you girls around the place, and if your parents will allow, you can spend the last 2 weeks of summer at my house."

Jaelah grinned, "That sounds great! I can finally meet your family."

"How about we go shopping for supplies on July 31st? Then we'll be ready for going to Erikk's. I'm sure our parents will agree. They don't want us causing trouble around home." I grinned and Jaelah laughed.

Erikk raised an eyebrow, "What have you two been doing?"

Jaelah shrugged, "Nothing that bad. Well, we did set my kitchen on fire once. Then there was the time that we hexed Draco. Oh, remember turning Harm's hair pink? That was the best. We need to remember that one!"

Erikk smacked his forehead, "I thought that you were behaving this summer."

I shrugged, "We are behaving this summer. You should have seen us at the beginning of summer. We got in trouble and had to stop being so crazy."

"What am I going to do with you two?"

We shrugged and both answered, "Love us."

* * *

We spent the next few days away from each other, until July 31st. The day we all met in Diagon Alley, to go shopping for school supplies.

While Draco, and many other students, were getting supplies for Hogwarts, Jaelah, Erikk, and I were getting supplies for Stein.

Pansy saw us in Madame Malkin's and came running up to us. "Hello you guys! Are you excited for this year?"

Erikk, Jaelah, and I looked at each other, Jaelah spoke up, "Actually yes. The three of us aren't going to Hogwarts, though. Maybe your year will be a little bit more quiet than usual. Lucky you." She grinned at Pansy's expression.

"Oh. Well, I guess you won't be doing things with us..." She then walked away.

We burst into laughter, "A year without Pansy will be heavenly!" Jaelah exclaimed.

When Madame Malkin saw us, she approached, "What will it be? Slytherin robes?"

We shook our heads, "Stein Zauberei robes. Three sets of plain black robes, and one formal cloak, and three winter cloaks." She gave us an odd look, then nodded.

After half an hour, we left there and went exploring since we had all the other equipment from our time at Hogwarts. We looked in the Quidditch store and the book store. Finally, Jaelah's parents came and pushed us out, making us go home.

"See you tomorrow, Erikk!" I yelled and Jaelah and Erikk went back to the Phantomhive's home.

I got back to the mansion and began packing. I had all my things for the 2 weeks at Erikk's home and for my time at Stein.

I went downstairs for dinner and Draco looked at me. Sincerely, he said, "I'm going to miss you and Jaelah being around all school year. You better write me while you're gone."

I grinned, "Of course. Who else would I write when my only friends are Erikk, Jaelah, and Amelia. I'll write so much you'll get tired of me writing."

He glared, "Okay, not that many letters. Maybe one a week or something."

"Fine." We finished up dinner and went to bed. Tomorrow would be a long day with the start of my time in Germany and being a third wheel to Erikk and Jaelah.

It would be great.

* * *

 **I'll update soon don't fret.**


	4. Chapter 3: Tour of Stein

**I'm sorry readers! I thought I had posted this a while ago! Forgive me! Read on!**

I awoke the next morning and got dressed in proper wizarding attire. I wore a navy blue blouse with a black skirt. I put on black combat boots, hoping that the look would be approved by Erikk's family and the school. I pulled out one of my Slytherin cloaks, not caring what was thought of it. I put on a silver headband, so my hair would be out of my face, then went downstairs with all of my supplies.

"Are you ready to go?" Lucius asked me and I nodded. He handed me a stone with a chain on it, "A portkey. It won't run out like normal portkeys. All you have to do is say Malfoy Manor and it will bring you back home, if you ever need to."

I smiled, "Thank you, Father." I put the chain around my neck as he then handed me a feather.

"This is your portkey to get to the Knolle residence. I do believe Miss Phantomhive has already arrived and both are waiting for you."

I nodded, "Thank you." I hugged him, then Narcissa, "I'll see you guys at Christmas."

I let go and held onto my trunk when finally the portkey took me through space and I landed, seconds letter, inside of a random house.

"YOU'RE HERE!" I was then bombarded by two little girls, maybe only 5 or 6, both who had almost red hair, maybe even strawberry dirty blonde hair, and hazel eyes. They both also had similar facial appearance of Erikk. I didn't remember him saying he had younger siblings.

One of the girls said, "Erikk is upstairs with another girl."

"So we want you to come upstairs and play with us!" The other one said.

I laughed at them, "I'll be here for another 2 weeks. How about I play with you two another day? Maybe we can get Erikk to play too." They grinned and nodded, "Can you two take me to where Erikk and Jaelah are?"

They each took one of my hands and I left my trunk where it was. We went up two flights of stairs and to a room that had Erikk's name on it. They knocked on his door, "Erikk, there's another girl here!" They let go of my hands then ran back downstairs.

Erikk opened the door, "I'm sorry, Vespera! I didn't know when you'd be here. I would have been waiting and I definitely didn't think that they would find you first."

"It's fine. They're adorable. What are their names?"

"Janek and Jek. I was hoping that one of the others would find you first. Not the obnoxious little twerps."

"You have other siblings?" I asked.

He nodded, but Jaelah yelled from inside, "Knolle! Let her in so you can stop talking in the hallway! Hurry up before a brother comes in and annoys us again!"

He stepped aside, "Come on in." I sat down on the bed next to Jaelah, and he sat on the floor. "I have a lot of siblings. Aldrick, Brook, Chadwick, Cenek, Dominik, Deepak, Flick, Gottschalk, Henrick, Irmak, Janek, Jek and Kelebek," he said this in a really fast single breath sentence.

I gave him a look, "Slow that down. How old are they all?"

"Aldrick is the oldest boy at 27. Then Brook is a sister at 24. Chadwick and Cenek are twin boys and are 18. Dominik and Deepak are twins at 15. Dominik is a girl, Deepak is a boy. Flick is the 11 year old girl. Gottschalk is a brother at 9. Henrick is a brother at 7. Irmak was a surprise baby girl and is almost 7. Janek and Jek are the twin girls you met earlier, both being 5. Then finally it's Kelebek. She's only a few months old. There are 14 of us all together. Aldrick, Brook, Chadwick, and Cenek don't live here full time. However, lucky us, Chadwick and Cenek are visiting us, they'll be the ones who come in uninvited and annoy us any moment now because unfortunately they are also how we're getting to Stein."

I smiled, "At least you always have someone to hang out with."

He shook his head, "Dominik and Deepak are always together, so then Flick is the closest one to me in age, Gottschalk is 4 years younger than me. It's not often I have someone to hang out with. Usually I'm stuck babysitting."

Suddenly, the door banged open and two guys came in. They had blond hair and brown eyes, and looked exactly like each other. Their minds were racing with ways to annoy us, and one of them thought, _'We should swap their appearances to make Erikk think that the blonde is the black haired one.'_

My eyes opened wide, "Don't you dare!" I said out loud. Then covered my mouth, realizing he hadn't actually said it.

"What are you yelling about Vespera?" Erikk gave me a funny look.

I pointed to his brothers, "They want to swap Jaelah's appearance with mine, and make you think I'm her and she's me."

He glared at them, "Not cool." He pointed to the one on the left, "That's Chadwick, and that's Cenek," pointing to the one on the right. "They usually behave, but apparently since my two friends that are here are both girls, they've decided to be the worst they possibly can." He shrugged then put on his cloak, "Come on, let's get going before they can cause more havoc in our lives."

He pushed out through them holding Jaelah's hand, but they then blocked me. Chadwick raised his eyebrows, "Just how did you know we were going to do that?"

I grinned, "Let's say I'm talented and I have a lot more where that came from."

Cenek whistled, "Looks like she's going to be fun this year. What's your name?"

"Vespera Salazar-Malfoy," I nodded my head, "Nice to meet you."

They looked shocked and Erikk came back up the stairs, "Are you guys trying to make us late? What's with that face?"

Cenek turned on Erikk, "You never told us a convicted killer was going to be staying here! Or that you were friends with a Malfoy!"

"I'm standing right here, you know? I'm innocent of the crime I was convicted for last year. I'm also not a Malfoy by blood, I'm a Salazar by blood. I'm a Malfoy by adoption and would appreciate you not insulting my family." I glared at the two of them, "Erikk, why aren't your brothers nicer?"

He shrugged, "I haven't figured them out yet. Come on, let's get going."

They stopped glaring and making faces and we all went to the sitting room, "Well come on all, take our arms so we can apparate there."

I took Jaelah's arm and she took Chadwick's arm, while Erikk took Cenek's arm, and we all apparated to Stein Zauberei.

When we arrived, I grinned, "This looks awesome."

While Hogwarts looked like a castle, this place looked like a giant house. It looked like home. Jaelah asked, "How do you keep the muggles from questioning this place?"

Cenek grinned, "It's made where only those who have been accepted can see it for what it is. Most people just see a giant field of grass with a little hut on it."

I nodded and we started towards the main entrance. Chadwick asked, "So are you guys ready to meet the Headmaster?"

Jaelah shrugged, "I guess. I mean, he can't be that scary, can he? I think I can take him. I mean he didn't even send our letters to us where we could read it. How rude is that? I think I'll give him a piece of my mind."

Erikk stopped and put his hands on Jaelah's shoulders, "Please, whatever you do, do not give him a piece of your mind. Do not be rude. We have to live with this man!"

Jaelah glared at him, "I'll do what I want. It's not as if we'll actually be spending that much time with him."

Chadwick's eyes opened wide, "You haven't told them have you?"

Cenek grinned, "Please give the headmaster a piece of your mind. We did it the entire time we were at school. And while the older siblings were too. Fit in with us and give him a piece of your mind!"

We reached the front gate, and the twins pushed them open, "Welcome to Hell," Erikk whispered.

We walked in and it looked very homey. Erikk said louder, "This is the main entrance. There are 3 floors of the school, the upstairs, main floor, and basement. The living quarters are all on the upstairs level. The main floor houses the cooking things, and the cafeteria, while the basement contains the battle classrooms. There are a few other courses taught, but those are mostly held in the seminar room, which is also on this level." He gestured to the door to his left. "Now going left here, we have the office. The vice headmistress is here, along with a secretary, and the headmaster. This is where we're going."

The twins had already made it ahead of us and were waiting. Chadwick whispered, "Please don't make any of them mad. It might be amusing, but it won't look good on your Hogwarts."

I nodded and we went in. Erikk continued talking, "Usually you'll see the secretary at that desk," he pointed to a semi circle desk to his left. "But she's on vacation still. The office on the right is the headmaster, the one on the left is the vice headmistress. Which one do you want to face first?"

"Headmaster. I'm going to give him a piece of my mind." Jaelah answered and Cenek laughed.

Erikk sighed and knocked on the door. A voice said, "Enter!" We walked in and the headmaster was sitting at his desk, "Ah, you must be the transfer students. Jaelah Phantomhive and Vespera Salazar-Malfoy. Welcome to Stein Zauberei. I hope you find it all to your liking. Along with the living arrangements of the next two weeks here." He smiled at us kindly.

I was about to speak up when Jaelah started talking, "I have a few bones to pick with you. You're obviously fluent enough in English. Why did you have to go and send the letters to us in full out German? Do you realize how much effort it took for me to figure out what it said? A lot of effort. Why should I need to put that much effort into reading a letter?! Also, what kind of school gives the students 24 hours to reply, but then almost a month before the school starts? How is that even fair to the incoming students, who may have gotten a lost owl or something? Or who may have been on vacation that one day that you sent it to them?" She took a breath and Erikk put his hand over her mouth.

He whispered to her, "I thought I said don't talk to him like that. You have to live with him!"

The headmaster looked at her and his face was blood red, "THIS IS WHAT YOU TELL ME TO INVITE TO THE SCHOOL ERIKK RYLAN IMAERAN KAELOS KNOLLE? THIS RUDE GIRL? AFTER I WENT THROUGH THE EFFORT TO MAKE SURE THAT HER AND YOUR FRIEND COULD COME TO THIS SCHOOL YOU LET HER COME IN LIKE THIS. I ALSO LET HER STAY IN MY HOUSE WEEKS BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS, BECAUSE YOU ASSURE ME SHE IS A NICE GIRL AND YOU LET HER TALK TO ME LIKE THIS?"

The twins had backed away from the headmaster and even Cenek looked afraid. I walked forward, "Sir, I'm very sorry for her behavior. Sometimes, she just doesn't know how to put a filter on what she's saying. We're both very grateful that you allowed us to come here this year, and for you allowing us to stay with your family weeks before school starts. She's a very strong willed student and that tends to show a lot."

The headmaster smiled at me, "At least one of them can be polite. Erikk, take these friends of yours to meet Headmistress Kadence." He looked at the twins, "Boys, keep an eye on them. Don't let them wander off."

They nodded and we left the room. Jaelah looked at Erikk, "What do you mean we're staying at his house? I thought we were staying with your family?"

Erikk slid his hand down his face, clearly stressed, "Jaelah, that was my dad."

Her eyes opened wide, "Did you forget to mention that your dad was the headmaster of the school? Why didn't you tell me this before! That is not the first impression I want to make on my boyfriend's dad!"

I went to say something to Jaelah about the headmaster's name being on the acceptance letter to Stein, but was cut off by one of the twins.

Cenek laughed, "I can't believe you said that to him. I didn't think you had the guts. You have a keeper, Erikk."

Chadwick also laughed, "You got your full name used on you. That should scare you even more. Imagine the nice dinner conversation tonight when dad comes home and she's there."

Erikk knocked on the headmistress's door, and she too said, "Enter."

This time, we walked in and Erikk said, "Jaelah, Vespera, I would like you to meet Vice Headmistress Kandace."

The lady looked up and Jaelah's eyes opened wide. Kandace had the same hair and eye color as Erikk and the girl twins we met earlier. Kandace's face instantly beamed, "I'm so excited to finally meet the infamous Jaelah and Vespera! Erikk has told us so much about you!" She ran up to Jaelah and gave her a hug, "Oh aren't you so pretty? You must be Jaelah. Erikk talks about you all the time! I'm so happy he's finally gotten himself a girlfriend." She looked at me, "Well you're just a doll too. I'm glad Erikk has actually made a few friends while he was away! I was beginning to think he was just making up stories about you two. He never would bring you over."

I smiled at her, "Thank you, Vice Headmistress. It's been fun having Erikk around. He made an interesting addition to our little group."

Erikk smiled at his mom, "Mom, you don't need to embarrass me like that. Why would I make up people?"

She smiled back at him, "Well your brothers over there made up girlfriends for themselves for a few years, so what else was I to expect?"

Erikk shook his head, "That I am not my brothers? I'm going to show the girls around the rest of the school. Is that okay with you?"

She nodded, "Certainly, just don't break anything. Also, don't be late for lunch. We're going to have a family picnic. Aldrick and Brook will be there too, so if you're late you know your father will skin you alive."

He nodded and Jaelah smiled, "It was nice meeting you. Thank you for letting us stay with your family."

She smiled back at Jaelah, "Anytime darling! It's our pleasure."

We then left the office and Chadwick grinned, "That went much better. Maybe you should have let her meet mom first. I mean, we all do mostly look like mom. Except Flick. Flick looks exactly like dad."

Jaelah smiled and said, "I can't wait until I get to meet the rest of your family. So far they all seem nice."

He nodded, but Cenek spoke up, "Kelebek is the most evil of them all. With Flick coming in second, then Irmak. It's the young ones you have to watch out for. How Janek and Jek missed the younger evil string, I don't know."

Erikk rolled his eyes, "The others are sweet, and they'll like you fine. Kelebek is only a few months old and it's undetermined whether she's actually evil."

We walked back into the main building and up the stairs. Erikk continued giving his tour, "The doors on the left are for the girls, the ones on the right are the boys. There are four people per each room and there is a suite connecting 2 rooms together. So two years of one house will share a bathroom. That is the first and second year girls of Rubin, for example, will share the bathroom. There are 56 rooms and 32 bathrooms; 28 rooms for girls, 28 rooms for boys; 16 bathrooms for girls, 16 bathrooms for boys. There are always empty rooms once you get to the upper years, because of the death rate. So, a lot of them end up with single or double rooms." There was a room with an emerald 3 on it and Erikk opened the door, "This is where you girls will be staying. Unlike Hogwarts, the students get sorted here by what the headmaster thinks of you. He gets letters from a lot of people in your life, and near you, and then makes a decision."

"So based off of what, were we put here? What house is here?"

"Let the one who's been here speak, Erikk." Cenek said, "This is the house of Smaragd. Our symbol is a kitten, which makes the other houses laugh. We are the house of the strong minded, the cunning, and sadly, we are also the house that typically gets those who have been hurt in some way or another. Typically, we're good at battle. As you can probably tell by your room, it's focused a lot around wood energy, the energy of growth, expansion, new beginnings, nourishment, and health. The students in this house help each other out. We're rough, we know how to battle, we know how to defend, but there are other aspects of life that we tend to need more help on. Welcome to your home."

I nodded, "It sounds wonderful." I glanced at Cenek and could now see something else in his eyes. I looked deeper and saw his older siblings picking on him and not his twin. I pulled out before he realized I was digging his mind. It was no wonder he was placed in this house.

Jaelah spoke up, "Why is there room in this house?"

Cenek gave a small smile, "Sometimes, we don't all make it."

Erikk gave him a funny look, "What? They got hurt in a battle? Against which house?"

Cenek shook his head, "It wasn't against another house or another person. They lost the battle against themselves."

Erikk's eyes opened wide, "Who?"

"Nova and Hayley," Cenek said before shaking his head and leaving the room.

Erikk frowned, "No wonder he's been acting different all summer." Jaelah raised her eyebrow, "Nova was Cenek's best friend. She used to hang out with all of us all the time; until she didn't..." He shook his head, "I wish I had known."

Jaelah took his hand, "I'm sorry, Erikk. I wish I could have helped. I wished I had known her."

He nodded, "It's fine. It just sucks." 

We left the room and Chadwick took up the tour, "Come on kids, let's show the rest of the place before lunch." We went down the stairs and into the main floor. He shoved open giant doors, "This is where everyone eats. The first and second year students make the dinner so the only time you will get a really good meal is when it's the first few days, breakfast, or Saphirs are cooking it." The room had many tables, all level with each other. There was one table in the very center, that looked more extravagant, perhaps where the professors sat at. We left that room then continued on, "This is the kitchen and the classroom." Chadwick opened a door and there were a lot of ovens, stoves, fridges, freezers, and basically everything found in a muggle kitchen. "The things here look muggle, but they have been enhanced for wizard usage. Cooking over a fire takes too long to cook any meals in." We quickly left there then went back to the Seminar Room. It was basically a room with a lot of stools and desks. There was a podium at the front of the room and that was all. "This is the Seminar Room and the end of the tour. You'll have a few classes here. We can't show you downstairs because that is a Knolle family secret, but never fret! On your first day here, you will encounter what the basement is like, just like all the other third years."

We left the room and ran into the parents. Mr. Knolle looked much happier now, "Ah. Just in time. Where's Cenek?"

"I'm here!" He yelled walking behind all of us.

"Good, let's go to the floo and get the family and lunch." Mr. Knolle said. We nodded and followed him to a giant fireplace.

We all stepped in, one by one, and threw down the floo powder and said, "Knolle Hole!" Then were whisked into the Knolle residence.

I, as always, fell flat on my face when exiting the floo. Some habits never leave. It was especially difficult to land straight, with these stupid braces.


	5. Chapter 4: Picnic with the Knolles

**Yes, I enjoy making you wait for months without me posting. I'm actually really sorry followers! Ch. 5 is done, and 6 is almost done. With any luck, I'll be posting those two chapters within a short amount of time following this (likely when I finish Chapter 6 I'll post 5. I'll post 6 when I'm done with 7, etc.)**

 **On with the show!**

The 7 of us left the house and went outside to a lawn. There were people everywhere. Jaelah took my hand, and Erikk had hers, as we walked through them. We finally made it to a clear zone and Erikk sighed, "I know it's your first day here, but we might as well get the introductions out of the way. Maybe then they won't surprise you."

"Look Erikk! I got my wand yesterday while you were away!" A younger girl came running up to us. She had long brown curly hair with lighter brown highlights, light sea green eyes with a bit of sparkle, and a blue flower in her hair. It matched the blue and white striped shirt she was wearing, blue skirt, and blue flats. Since she was the only child without the dirty blond hair of the mother I could only assume that this was Flick.

"That's a fine wand you have there. You're not going to practice too much before school, are you?" Erikk replied laughing at her.

"Oh, shut up Erikk. You know I'm going to be a better witch than you. You've seen what I've done with your wand. Now imagine what I can do with my own wand. It'll be phenomenal," She stuck her tongue out at him.

Jaelah gave him a look, "How can she be using a wand? It's illegal?"

Erikk nodded, "It is illegal, but it's because we're so near the range of the school that the board chooses to ignore us using magic. It would be too difficult to prove it was us or someone practicing at school." He nodded his head towards Flick, "This is Flick by the way, if you couldn't tell. She's the one we adopted because she looked so pitiful."

Flick glared at him, "You take that back right now Erikk Rylan Knolle."

He smiled and laughed, "You're younger than me. You can't make me take anything back."

"Fine." She pulled out her wand and pointed it towards him. She didn't say a spell but I could see the sparks flying from her wand.

Unfortunately for her, she missed Erikk.

Unfortunately for Jaelah, Erikk dodged and it went right for her.

Unfortunately for me, there was another child with a wand who was throwing similar sparks at me.

I fell backwards and when I hit the ground, I was on all my belly. I looked up and noticed that everyone was taller than me.

I looked towards Jaelah and saw what looked to be a kitten. A little fluffy black kitten.

She hissed at me and I asked, "What?"

Suddenly she turned into a human again and I sat up looking at her. She opened her eyes wide at me, "Vespera, what did you say?"

"I asked what you were hissing at, miss kitty."

"You were a snake thank you. Seeing your best friend turn into a snake isn't pleasant, especially after last year."

Erikk was glaring at the younger children, "What spell did you use on them?"

Flick smiled, "It wasn't supposed to hurt anyone and it didn't. I wasn't even aiming for Jaelah. It shows what your animagus would be if you ever went through the training. It, very temporarily, will change you into that animal. Dominik taught it to me, and I taught it to Gottschalk. You shouldn't leave your wand unprotected Erikk." The younger boy handed Erikk his wand back.

Erikk glared at Flick, "If you use that spell on anyone else, I'll tell dad and he'll confiscate your wand. It happened to Chadwick and I know dad won't hesitate to do it to you too." Erikk took Jaelah's hand and helped her up. They started to walk away to who knows where. He waved at me, not looking back, and said, "Come on, Vespera."

I frowned, rolled over to attempt to push myself up off of the ground and failed. Not being able to bend my knees properly was a major pain and an inconvenience. Erikk and Jaelah were off talking to Erikk's parents. Meanwhile, everyone else looked like they were enjoying themselves.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned my head around. It was either Chadwick or Cenek. He came around front and held out his hands, "Need some help, Vespera?"

I took his hands and he helped pull me up to a standing position. "Thank you..." I paused, "I'm sorry I can't tell the difference between the two of you yet."

He smiled at me, "Cenek. You'll be able to tell the two of us apart once we're at Stein since I'll be the only one you see. Chad is in Rubin. I'm in Smaragd."

I smiled at him, "Thank you, Cenek, for helping me get up. Erikk is distracted with Jaelah, of course."

I looked up at him, into his eyes, and his thoughts came pouring down on me, _'Why does she have leg braces on? A pure-blooded witch and a Malfoy. Surely, she can walk without those things. It's just, so muggle. Oh no, she's staring. I've been silent too long.'_ He smiled and spoke, "Well, Miss Vespera, I'll introduce you to everyone else." He held out his arm and I took it.

"Thank you, Cenek. Sorry about being an inconvenience with my braces. Something happened my first year of Hogwarts and I was put into a wheelchair. Being able to mostly walk at all is a wonderful thing. It's just difficult to stand up from sitting on the ground."

He smiled, "You are no inconvenience to me, Vespera. Slow walks are the best anyways especially when people want to talk to you."

I nodded and we reached a group of people, 2 girls and 2 boys. One girl and boy looked very similar in age, one of Erikk's many twin siblings perhaps.

"You guys, this is Erikk's friend Vespera. Vespera, this is Aldrick, Brook, Deepak, and Dominik. Aldrick is our official person who left the family forever. He got tired of living with us, and-"

Aldrick held out his hand, "It's nice to meet you, Vespera. Don't listen to everything Chadwick says. I left so I wouldn't have to hear all of the children's noise. It gets quite loud in the Knolle Hole."

I looked at him confused. He had said Chadwck, but I thought this was Cenek. My introducing twin was frowning as he continued, "Brook is the secretary at school. You'll probably see her around a lot. She lives there full time."

Brook held out her hand, "It's nice to me you." I shook her hand. "Chadwick, it was so nice of you to show Vespera around, especially with Erikk and Jaelah being occupied with each other."

Once again, my introducing twin frowned and continued, "Deepak and Dominik are in their fifth year of Stein, both of them in Topas."

Dominik held out her hand, "Like, it's so nice to meet you Vesper."

Deepak then took his hand out of his pocket and held it out, "Dude, you should come and chill with us some time. We know some awesome spots to see Vespers at. Your name is Vesper, see your name sake."

Dominik smiled, "That's like, such a good idea Deepak! Why didn't I think of it? Chadwick, you must bring her down to the Topas room when we get back. She'll love it."

The twin I was with rolled his eyes, "Sure DoDee, I'll get right on that. Although, her name is Vespera not Vespers." He turned around and I followed.

"You said you were Cenek, but they called you Chadwick?" I asked curiously.

He shrugged, "A common thing in the family. Once they've gotten old enough to not care, both of us are Chadwick unless we're together. Then we are Chadwick and Cenek."

"They never bothered to tell you two apart?"

He shook his head, "Nope, but it's fine. I'm not worth much anyways; at least not in a house with so many kids as is."

"I'm sorry, Cenek," I put my hand on his shoulder.

He shrugged it off, "It's fine, really. Let's introduce you to the little people of the family." He walked over to a group of children. He waved them into a group, "Can you guys introduce yourselves to Erikk's friend Vespera? Erikk isn't playing nice and telling her who his family is." He smiled to them and they all grinned back.

"Me first, Cenek!" A little girl jumped up and down. She curtsied to me, "I'm Irmak and I'm 6, but I'll be 7 in five months!" She shared the same blonde hair and brown eyes as most of the family had.

"It's nice to meet you Irmak. You're certainly a very pretty girl. Who's going to beat up all the boys who want to date your pretty self?"

She giggled as a boy stepped up, "I am. I'm Henrick and I'm 7 already. I'm bigger than her, so I have to take care of her. Isn't that right Cenek?" Cenek nodded to him.

I laughed as Janek and Jek pulled on Henrick, "But Hen, who's gonna take care of us?" One of the girls asked.

"I thought you took care of us!" the other said.

Irmak took the two girls hands, "I'm older than you two, so I'm in charge of you. I'm the ruler of your kingdom and what I says goes."

Janek looks at me, "Erikk shouldn't be so rude and not tell you who everyone is."

I smiled at her, "It's okay, he loves Jaelah. Therefore, he can do what he wants with her. I'm just a friend to them."

Cenek laughed, "Don't worry Janek, I'll make sure Vespera is taken care of. Will that work out?"

Janek grinned, "Yes, Cenek! Yes!" She then skipped away and joined her other siblings.

"I saw you with Gottschalk and Flick earlier so there you have it. The entire Knolle Clan. Well, except for Kelebek, but unless you want to go join Erikk and Jaelah, you'll have to wait to meet her."

I smiled, "That's okay, I can wait. Thank you for introducing me to everyone. I see the younger ones all know you're different than your brother?"

He nodded, "I play with them and he doesn't. He can be quite rude to them."

We fell into silence as we were all called over to eat dinner; a picnic with no tables.

All of us grabbed plates and I went to sit with Jaelah, but the older family members had already taken places near her. However, no one was sitting next to Cenek, so I went to sit next to him instead. "Do you mind if I sit?"

He pointed to the space next to him, "Be my guest."

I leaned over and sat my food down, put my hands on the ground, before then swinging my legs out and flopping onto the ground. "Thank you."

"That seems like a lot of work just to sit down. If Erikk had mentioned you couldn't sit well on the ground we could have brought chairs."

I shrugged, "It's fine, Cenek. I've had to adjust a lot lately, and Erikk probably just didn't know I couldn't get on the ground. I usually just fall backwards onto chairs anyways, he probably didn't see any difference of me falling backwards onto the ground."

Cenek nodded, "Well, from now on I'll be your official helper for when you're down. That way, even when we're at Stein, you won't have to struggle with getting on your feet again. How's that sound?"

I smiled at him, "It sounds nice and I would appreciate it. Thank you, Cenek."

As we finished our meal, Cenek sat my plate on the ground on top of his. He whispered, "The house elves will get it. They save mom a bunch of a headache from trying to track down all of our dishes." I nodded, as he then stood up, and held his arms out. I took a hold of them and he pulled me up.

Erikk and Jaelah came over and Erikk looked at Cenek before speaking, "Thanks, Chadwick, for taking care of Vespera while I showed Jaelah around."

"Cenek," I interrupted.

"Excuse me? I think I would know my own brothers apart," Erikk snapped back at me.

"Then you've thought of them wrong because this is Cenek," I snapped back at him. "Maybe you should try to figure out who your brothers are because they aren't just some random person. They're two different people. What are you going to do when Janek and Jek are older? Just call them both Jek and hurt their feelings? Names matter Erikk Knolle and you better keep that in mind."

Cenek put his hand on my shoulder, "It's okay, Vespera. I'm used to it." He removed his hand, "Have fun with your friends." He then turned around and walked off back into the house.

"I'm sorry for having left you with Chadwick. Come on. You can meet Kelebek if you'd like," Erikk waved me forward without even taking a second thought at the fact that Cenek was there and not Chadwick.

We walked over to his parents and baby Kelebek waved her tiny fingers at me, "She's cute." I smiled.

The parents nodded then looked at Erikk, "Make sure you don't fall behind on your studies while these two are here. In addition, you should get them caught up on what they've missed during their time at Hogwarts, instead of being at Stein."

Erikk nodded, "Yes, Father." He waved us forward, "Come along, darling people, to my humble abode where we can study and chat away."

We followed him inside and began studying.

We hadn't missed that much at Stein, only enough to be slightly inconvenient. It was very similar to what we learned about in potions class.

During the next two weeks while we were there, the Knolles constantly ate outside, and every time I would sit with Cenek, and every time he would help me get up and down. The two of us bonded while Jaelah and Erikk stayed with all the other older kids and the parents.

I knew I had found a friend in Cenek, and with him, Stein might be bearable.


	6. Chapter 5: The First Day

**Sorry for the wait! I'm actually just terrible at posting chapters. I'll post chapter 6 shortly after this, since you've waited for so long.**

 **Leave reviews, it's nice to know you're all still alive.**

It was finally August 14 and we all took the floo to Stein Zauberei. All together it was Brook (the secretary sister), Chadwick, Cenek, Dominik, Deepak, Flick, Erikk, Jaelah, myself, the Headmaster, and the Headmistress. Upon arrival, we were all instructed to go to our individual commons area.

Dominik and Deepak went off to Topas, Flick went to Saphir, Chadwick and Erikk went to Rubin, and Cenek, Jaelah, and I went to Smaragd.

Once Cenek, Jaelah, and I reached the Smaragd commons, Cenek stopped and turned, "Don't be surprised if you see things you aren't expecting from these people. Some of them, well, they didn't have as nice of a Summer as they should have had. Don't stare, but don't avoid eye contact. It's a balance that you'll learn over time. The good news is that you're not the only new ones here. There are 8 first year students too."

We nodded, then Cenek opened the door. We walked into a room that had a circle of beanbag chairs in it. With a quick count, I realized there were 18 people there so far, 21 now. The house could have up to 56 people. Either a lot of people had died or we weren't the last ones to arrive.

Cenek waved us to follow him, and we sat down in the circle, but away from the others that were sitting already. "Once the others from your year get here, I'll introduce you. They'll be the ones you see the most anyways."

He put his hands under his chin and didn't say anything. I wondered why he didn't go and try talking to anyone. There were several conversations going on between the other students, but Cenek seemed more content to just not talk to anyone. He was much more silent than he had been when he was at home. I couldn't help but wonder why he shut down so much when we arrived into the commons area.

I sat down next to him, very awkwardly, since it was difficult to sit down or stand straight up with my braces on. I put my hand on his shoulder, "Cenek, are you okay?"

He nodded, "I'm fine, Vespera." I could feel a nudging from his brain, his emotions taking over. I was sucked into his memories.

 _Cenek sat in the commons area, a younger Cenek, maybe his first year. He looked around and tried to talk to the ones around him but they ignored him._

 _Cenek's memories flew. The start of another year, more people ignoring him._

 _A third year, a fourth year, his memories stopped on the fifth year._

 _A girl stopped and sat next to him. Her face was scarred with circular burn marks. She held out her hand and her sleeve rose to see scars from cuts. She smiled at him, "You looked lonely. You shouldn't be lonely. I'm Nova, it's nice to meet you."_

 _He smiled back at her, "Cenek," he took her hand and shook it. "Would you care to sit with me?"_

 _She nodded, "Of course." She sat down next to him and many students snubbed her for doing so, "Why is it everyone seems to dislike you, Cenek?"_

 _He frowned, "I'm the headmaster's son and as such they think I don't fit in. How could someone who has such a loving father and mother really fit into this house?"_

 _She stared at him, "I can tell you fit in. Your scars just aren't out here, they're in here," she put her finger on his forehead. "It'll just take a while for anyone else to see it."_

 _Memories flooded by of Cenek and Nova until they stopped again. Cenek was standing outside of the girls' 2nd year room. Nova was late. All the other girls had left already. Hayley said she was running late this morning, but she couldn't wait for her any longer._

 _Cenek had found friends in Nova and Hayley. They were two years younger than him, but they accepted him._

 _Cenek took out his wand and tapped it on the wall. Classes would start in 5 minutes. He knocked on the door, "Nova, come on. It's almost time for classes!"_

 _He put his ear to the door and didn't hear any motions. He opened the door and walked in._

I was suddenly shoved out and physically fell against Jaelah. Thankfully we were both sitting down.

"Those are my memories. It's better not to pry little snake," Cenek glared at me. "Keep your abilities to yourself or next time you're getting cursed."

I nodded, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." I once again leaned forward and put my hand on his shoulder, "I'm truly sorry, Cenek. They meant a lot to you. We can't replace them, but you have friends in us. Or at least in me. I don't know what Jaelah is doing." I smiled at him, "You're going to make it through this year."

He shook his head and went back into silent mode.

Jaelah looked at me, "Did you just do what I think you did?"

I smiled sheepishly, "I didn't mean to. Professor Snape never had a chance to fully tutor me how to control it."

She rolled her eyes, "What am I going to do with you?" Just then, Jaelah's pet snake slithered up behind her and coiled in her lap. "Hey there, Ryan. I didn't know you were a student here too." I looked at her and we both laughed.

"You're going to get in trouble for having him in the commons room during this, Jae." Ryan looked at me and hissed.

"They won't do anything. Thissssss placcccce welcomes all kindsssss of petsssssss and animalsssssss. You sssshould sssssssssee the housssssse animal." Ryan hissed at me and Jaelah looked down at him with a questioning look then back at me.

"You hush, I didn't ask you." I stuck my tongue out at the serpent and looked back at Jaelah.

"Relax, Ves. No one is going to say anything. I saw one person earlier with a wolf in their dorm."

"That is utterly insane." I looked around as more people had trickled in, and finally the door shut on its own. I counted the heads. 43 of us all together. Out of the group that was here, they had lost 15 people already.

I looked across the circle and my eyes opened wide in shock. There was a girl, around my age, who was very familiar. She hadn't seen me yet, but I knew that face. It was Bailey, my old muggle friend.

Except, maybe she wasn't as muggle as I thought she was.

Suddenly, a ghost appeared in the middle of the floor. She couldn't have been more than 16 or 17 years old when she died. She was a little on the tall side, no more than five foot nine. She had long hair, down to the middle of her torso. It was a nice burgundy color. Her posture was impeccably wonderful. In her eyes, she looked as though she had seen some terrible things before she died. Her clothes were modern, so I assumed that she passed recently but the reflection in her eyes said something completely different. Looking closer, it seemed as if she had seen horror and agony in her waking life but there hasn't been anything like that in Germany since-

"Welcome to Smaragd, new and old students. I am the head of Smaragd, Seele Krüger." My inner babbling and evaluating of the girl standing before me stopped as her melodic voice came over us.

She continued, "You may call me Seele. As I'm sure you can tell, you have all gathered here for the first of many Smaragd class. Attendance is mandatory and your grade is based off attendance alone. You do not have to speak up, you simply just have to listen to others and be aware of the students. While other houses will have different classes, our class is used to help our biggest weakness; being hurt. I'm about to bore the ones of you who have been here before, but this will help the new members of Smaragd to understand why I am here. and what this class is for." Seele began floating around the circle, looking at each one of us, "I first attended Stein Zauberei in 1940. The second World War was going strong. I was placed into Smaragd because I had a hardship like so many others. My father had been sent off to fight. My mother was killed many years before, when birthing my younger sister. My younger sister and myself were in hiding. Many of our neighbors had been stolen from their houses at night. One night, the week before I was meant to go to Stein, soldiers burst into my house. My younger sister was on the floor below me. She hadn't made it up the stairs yet. She screamed and yelled but never gave away that I was upstairs. I could see her the entire time. I quietly scurried to the fire place. I had to get away, but how? The embers were still burning in the mantel, but I climbed. I climbed up the chimney as well as I could." She paused, staring at Cenek, then continued, "A wizard appeared in the fireplace with me. He held onto my cloak, threw down floo powder, and we were here. I spent my first few years recovering from that experience, but my time here helped that. How did I die though? Not everyone that was at Stein was safe. A boy came up to me one day. It was 1945, I was in my sixth year of Stein. He told me who he was and that he knew of my past. He then killed me. I woke up hours later as a ghost. I continued my studies here and then became a professor here. I've been through hardships and I'm willing to help any of you. If you even just need help with a relationship, I will be here." She smiled at us, "Now it's your turn to share, if you do so please. At least introduce yourself, with your name and year. Seventh years first."

After that long spiel, one by one, a student would stand up, say their name, and a few would speak up. Cenek was the second to go up. He only said his name and that he was in his seventh year. Together there were 2 seventh years, 4 sixth years, 5 fifth years, 8 fourth years, then it was the third years' time.

One girl stood up and announced she was Morganthe, a third year, and sat back down.

Then, the long-awaited Bailey stood up and spoke softly; softer than I had ever heard her. "My name is Bailey and I am a third-year student here at Stein Zauberei." She moved, as if she wasn't going to say anything else, however she continued, "I grew up in Wales and was a part of the high society. Being rich doesn't mean you're okay though. I was never happy at home. Always ignored by my parents. If I did well in school and extracurriculars, I was perfect to them. The nanny and tutors were all I had. When I was 8, I convinced my nanny, who convinced my parents, that going to an actual school was a good choice for me. I went to the school and met a girl. She was absolutely perfect. She was always smiling and had the perfect hair and eyes. I was jealous of her. One day, she told me a secret though. Her mom didn't listen to her very much either. We became best friends, or so I thought. One day, she just disappeared. I tried calling her, I waited for her at school, and finally, I went to her house. Her mom said she was sent off to a boarding school and was disowned. My heart broke. My only friend was gone forever and I had no way of finding her. The next day, I received my 2 days notice that I was a witch and was offered to attend Stein Zauberei. Classes starting the next 2 days. I told my parents, my nanny, my tutors, and left. I had no reason to stay there because as far as I knew my only friend was gone." She paused and looked at Seele, who was nodding, as if she had heard all of this before. Bailey began sobbing, "I saw her this summer she looked so happy and alive. It hurts me that she moved away and had forgotten all about me. She found new friends and I'll never pass through her head again. She probably forgot about me the second her Malfoy brother walked in. I don't know what happened to her but she had been hurt because she had something weird going on with her legs. I don't know what to do anymore with her being alive."

She buried her face in her hands and Seele wrapped her ghost arms around her, which looked odd. "It will be okay, my child. You will make new friends even with her still dear to your heart. Maybe one day your fate will have you cross paths again."

Bailey nodded and went back to her seat. Meanwhile, Jaelah and Cenek were both giving me a very odd look. I was the only person that had a Malfoy brother that they knew of.

Seele turned and nodded to me. It was my turn to speak up. Cenek stood up in front of me and held out his hands. I gratefully took them and stood up.

Cenek sat back down and I looked around at everyone, most of whom were staring at me, except for Bailey, who was still sobbing into her hands.

I swallowed then spoke softly, "My name is Vespera Salazar-Malfoy. I'm a third-year transfer student from Hogwarts."

Upon saying my name, half of the room began whispering about the events of me in Azkaban, of me with the last name Malfoy and Bailey's story, while the other half just looked half asleep with all the other stories.

Bailey looked up at me, her crying stopping. She whispered, "You're a witch?"

"My adoptive mother disowned me when she found out I was a witch, and I moved into a family of wizards who loved me against all odds. I went to Hogwarts, as a Slytherin. Just like all of you, I've had hard times, but I don't particularly want to share them." Cenek stood up and smiled at me. He then held my arms as I sat back down, before sitting back down himself.

Jaelah stood up next, "I'm Jaelah Phantomhive and I'm a third-year transfer from Hogwarts as well. I was in Slytherin, and quite honestly, I'm trying to figure out why in the world I was placed here anyways. I'm fine." She then sat back down and I looked up at her. Never had Jaelah been so short about anything. Looking into her eyes, I could tell something was off. I had known Jaelah for all of my wizarding world experience and I had never seen this look on her. She was hiding something. I tried to read her thoughts, but she was singing _Satellites Act III_ by Crown the Empire mentally. I made a note to ask her about it later as they continued with the 4 third year guys, the 8 second years, and the 8 first years.

"Thank you everyone for sharing. Remember, we will meet every day this first week and after that we will meet for 3 hours on Fridays until time for exams. At that point, we will meet again every day. I am always here if you need me and so are your fellow Smaragd residents. Never be afraid to talk to someone," Seele finished. She then smiled and floated out of the room. Slowly all the students stood up and went about their business.

Bailey walked over to me, "You're a witch, huh? Why didn't you tell me?"

I smiled at her, "You're a witch too. You weren't in a rush to tell me, now were you? It's all in the secrecy. Most witches and wizards know my name because of the incident with Azkaban last year. I assume if someone is magic, they'd let me know."

She shook her head, "I don't read the news and gossip isn't a top priority on my list. I guess we'll be able to play sports together again, right? You'll play quidditch with us?"

I shook my head and pointed to my legs, "I'm accident prone. I've been banned from playing Quidditch."

Cenek turned his head and had a look of shock, "You can't play Quidditch?!"

It was Bailey's turn to speak, "You have a voice again?!"

Jaelah and I just looked very confused and in the silence, I decided to answer. "I can play quidditch, I was okay at it."

"Okay? She was fabulous. She was the seeker of our team! At least until the incident... She's a phenomenal player!" Jaelah beamed.

"You're in Germany now. Surely your parents won't know if you've played a little pickup game?" Cenek nudged me, "Come on, I must see how good you actually are at my favorite sport!"

Bailey continued to stare at Cenek and I smiled at him, "Sure, maybe once I can stand on my own without these braces. They'll affect how I fly."

Bailey spoke up again, "You're better, aren't you?"

Cenek looked at her and nodded, "I'm doing better. It's hard not to be a bit cheerful when you have these two picking at you." He messed up my hair and I glared at him. "I realized. Sorry Vespera, that I was moping around, when I could be worse off. I could be in Vespera's state, without being able to walk well. I can walk, I'm alive. I should use that to my advantage. Maybe graduate. I've been thinking going into therapy so I can help others like Nova and Hayley. Maybe do them a little proud of me."

Bailey smiled, "I'm sure they would have liked that." She looked down at Jaelah and myself, "Well, come on then. We'll get you two all settled into the dorm then we'll eat dinner. You don't mind if I steal them do you, Cenek?"

He shook his head, "Be my guest." He stood up at the same time as Jaelah and then held his arms out to me. I took them and pulled myself up. He kissed my forehead, "Be safe, Vespera."

I smiled at him, "I'll try. Thank you, Cenek."

He then walked off and Jaelah turned to me, "What the heck was that?"


	7. Chapter 6: Classes, gross

**See, this didn't take too long to be posted now did it?**

 **I hope to post more soon, but school will be starting again… let's face it. You'll get more because I'll procrastinate on school.**

 **Until then!**

I shrugged, "It's just how Cenek is to me. He's actually nice and helps me not fall flat on my face."

Jaelah stuck her tongue out at me, "I'm nice. I don't shove you over."

Bailey smiled a little, "He likes you a lot, Vespera. He's been silent ever since Nova died. We couldn't get a word out of him. When Hayley was lost, he was a total goner. Even when they were here, he only treated them as friends. No kissing on foreheads or anything. He likes you, I've spent 3 years with him, and he likes you."

I shrugged, "It is what it is. We've all just been through a lot is all."

"Anyways, how are you a witch? What's happened with your legs? Now that I know you're a witch, I'm not thinking 'Well I wish I could heal her with my spells,' which I couldn't do before, but why haven't you been healed?"

I chuckled at Bailey as I began to move towards our room. "I had an unfortunate accident, and for some reason magic wouldn't heal it. I was in a wheelchair for a while, but I've moved up to braces. It's not too bad."

Bailey nodded, but frowned, "How are you going to make it through the exercise trainings? Or the battle sessions? Your braces automatically slow you down. You'll be at a high disadvantage."

I shrugged, "I'll find a way through it somehow."

With that I went into my bed and went to sleep. I was done with the conversing thing with them for the night.

The next morning, I awoke to find Morganthe staring at me. "You move a lot in your sleep, but you don't make any noise. Do you have a silencing spell over your bed?"

I shrugged, "Potentially. I can't disrupt everyone's sleep, now can I?" I went and took extra time to put on both of my braces, after having put on stockings.

She looked at me strangely, "One day you're going to talk. They all talk at some point, and when you do, your story will be an interesting one." She shrugged, "Breakfast starts at 7, classes at 8. It's 6 now and Jaelah won't wake up."

I nodded, "Jaelah isn't a morning person."

I slid a skirt on and received funny looks from Morganthe, "You're wearing a skirt?"

"Yes? I almost always do?"

"You have exercise courses today. If you wear a skirt the boys will look up at you."

I shrugged, "Let them try," I pulled at a pair of leggings I had on, "They'll only see these. I've learned that boys are stupid like that."

She nodded, "You are wise." She then turned away and left the room.

Bailey suddenly shot up, "Thank goodness. Morganthe is great, but she's kinda creepy. I usually don't get ready until she's gone."

I pulled off my night shirt, and slid on a black fitted t-shirt. I braided my hair back, into a short braid, then slid my shoes on. I then stood up fully and jerked Jaelah's blankets off of her.

"No, it's too cold!" Jaelah mumbled as she started rummaging for her blankets.

"Come on Jae, it's time for breakfast and classes. Don't make me send Erikk in here without you having gotten ready."

She shot up, Ryan flying across the room from sleeping above her head. "You wouldn't dare!"

"I would, now get up. I'm leaving," I went and picked Ryan up from near the door and sat him down on the bed again.

Bailey chuckled as I grabbed my bag and slowly walked out of the room. I opened the door and saw people walking by with a funny look on their face, I turned my head to the right and there Cenek was. "Good morning, Vespera. I figured you could use the company. I remember how Bailey and Jaelah get up and the answer is, they don't."

"Thanks, Cenek, I appreciate it." I took his arm and we went to the dining hall.

He took me to a table that was empty, apparently people didn't enjoy waking up this early. Cenek took notice of my glancing around, "Don't fret. Soon people will start waking up earlier as they have to be put into the kitchen. Few people are excited to see what classes they'll be having."

As the words came out of his mouth, a plate of food appeared in front of me, with pancakes, bacon, and eggs on it. Then a pile of letters also appeared. Cenek handed me one letter, and he opened the other.

"Wow, Stein sure doesn't give you a break, do they?" I commented when seeing my mostly full schedule. The only breaks I had were when I had lunch, and a brief hour study break, the rest of the time I was running from 8 until, assumingly 4. I glanced over to Cenek's schedule, and saw it was blank. "Why don't you have anything in your schedule?"

He shrugged, "By time you're a seventh year, you know what you're doing with your life. You'll probably survive. There are so few of us, that they don't give us a schedule, we write in our classes when we want to take them, assuming they are offered in that time, and register to help with the younger classes, then submit the schedule, and we do what we want." He then plucked my schedule from my hand and smiled, before starting to jot down things on his paper.

I glanced at his half-filled schedule, "Your entire afternoon is the same as mine, why did you do that?"

He smiled, "Because it's better than getting stuck with the other houses. Anyways, let's face it, no offense, but if I get to work with you it'll push me closer to my newest life goal of helping those who need it the most."

I rolled my eyes, "Sure, Cenek." I tapped my wand, it was 7:45. "I suppose I should go off to Herbology? Okay so I know it's all cool that there is herbology here, but why is herbology required? It's silly."

Cenek chuckled, "Watch it, Vespera. Herbology, well it studies deadly plants. You'll be touching some pretty nasty things in there. I hope you're prepared."

I shrugged, "We will see."

Jaelah came bursting through the doors, snake in bag and Bailey behind her. They both grabbed fruit, then turned around, "Hi Vespera!" they said at the same time, pausing in their rush.

"Hi, you two," I said as I stood up. "Nice of you to finally join us." A piece of paper with their names appeared on the table, "We have herbology. Let's go before you make us late." With that I smiled at Cenek, and we followed Bailey toward the back door, into an open field.

"Everyone gather around!" The professor was going about placing empty pots at each of our tables. "Does everyone have their gloves? If you do not want to face a most terrible death, please put on your gloves now."

"Eesh, this isn't already sounding dreadful, is it?" Jaelah whispered to me.

"You. English girl. No smarting off to me. I doubt you've learned anything you need to know about herbology in your other school, so you better take plenty of notes," the professor turned her back, and Jaelah rolled her eyes. "No rolling your eyes. One more fault and you'll be packing your bags."

Jaelah sighed and pulled out her notebook, and the professor began. "For those who are new," she glared toward Jaelah and myself, "I am Professor Page" I will be teaching you about the poisons of the wizarding world, as well as their proper usage for your next course, baking or cooking." She pointed her wand at the blank air, and a white board appeared. "Today we will be discussing Giftkuchen." The word appeared on the board, along with a picture. Honestly, it was a rather strange thing to look at, because it looked like a venus fly trap, something that I had seen plenty of in the muggle learning world. "It's uses include healing properties to any physical ailment for pure blood witches or wizards. In addition, it's venom is used as a lethal poison for any creature who is not a pure blood witch or wizard."

I gulped, it would likely be lethal to me, and if I accidentally touched it I would be dead, and shown as a fraud for being a witch. "The best part of it for a witch or wizard, or even those who are being poisoned by it, the venom it produces tastes like cake. However, the side effect, besides death in those cases, is it will make the taker have diarrhea for the next two hours, but what's that to being physically damaged for weeks."

Jaelah had written all the notes, and even started to doodle a picture of it. Sometimes that girl never ceased to amaze me with her skills.

"For the next half hour, I expect you each to come back with a Giftkuchen properly planted into your pot. Off with you."

I looked up and saw a grin in the professor's eyes toward Jaelah and me, as though she wanted us to fail. I focused in on her thoughts, and saw how one would properly plant one, and where the majority of them were located. I put on my gloves, picked up my pot, and my shovel, whispering to Jaelah, "Do what I do."

Jaelah nodded, and we walked off, I could feel the delight from Professor Page. We had shovels, every student had a shovel, and yet one wouldn't use a shovel to get one out.

I went to the far side of the embankment, and knelt to the ground, "We need the dirt from here, it's wet enough that the plant won't immediately start to die upon extraction."

Jaelah grinned, "You read her mind, didn't you?"

I shrugged, "I may have read the textbook, if anyone asks."

We potted soil, then went a little further in, Jaelah squealed, "Look there it is."

We approached it, and the picture did the thing justice, except it was very active. "Take your shovel, and toss it. It's not required."

"Why did you make me carry it over here then?"

"So, we would look like we were going to fail like most of the class will," Jaelah nodded as we approached the plant. I pulled out my wand, "It'll burn with fire, but sleep with smoke."

Jaelah held out her arm, "Let me, I'm better at fire spells and you know it." I waved her along, and she created a smoke fog, which made the plants go droopy.

"Reach right underneath the top level, it has shallow roots, but with a shovel they could get hit and ruined." We did this, and then Jaelah planted the two sleeping plants, covering them with the soil from where we had pulled them from, all so I wouldn't have to get on the ground.

"It looks dead."

"Yes, but it's just asleep, let's get it back before it wakes up."

We approached the makeshift classroom, and no one was back at their spots yet, even with the timer having only five minutes left. "Ah the first two to give up their task and come back as failures. Should have expected no less from you British girls." She hadn't turned to face us yet, but went on with talking, "You will be the first to know that the only way to re-plant it is without using a shovel. You must create a haze of -"

"Smoke." Jaelah cut her off, "Then grab it from underneath lightly without using the shovel, putting it into a moist pot of soil."

I smiled at Jaelah, knowing she needed the redemption from earlier. The professor turned around at that point and saw us both with our Giftkuchen. We then sat them on the table as they began to stir again, snipping at each other as they had been doing before.

"Impressive, maybe I was wrong to judge so quickly. Welcome to Stein Zauberei ladies."

We grinned at each other, as the other students came in with obviously dead plants, or nothing at all, and past the time limit. We listened to the rest of the lecture, as we had to know how to use them in cooking, before we then went off to our next class.

When we reached the next class I groaned, we would once again be standing. It was cooking, but standing for so long hurt too much, I had been hoping we would at least get to sit a little.

"Hello class, I hope you are all prepared for today's lesson. Come along, pots on the stove. Pull out your textbooks! We will be cooking spaghetti, both a poison version, and a clean version. To begin, a clean version. Turn to page 164, and begin cooking!"

Jaelah and I frowned, we weren't prepared for this. However, I was more prepared than Jaelah because of my muggle upbringing. I grabbed my pot and put water in it, along with salt and oil and started the stove top. I stood back and watched the pot, then went to grab noodles and a jar of Ragu.

Meanwhile, Jaelah was staring at her book and was measuring water to the exact drop, and hadn't even gotten anything else into her pot yet.

"Jaelah, you're never going to finish in time if you don't start your pot boiling."

"I'm going, but this is like potions, right? If I'm not exact it might blow up!"

I shook my head and started her stove top, "Put salt and the oil looking stuff in it. It's boiling water Jaelah, not potions."

"Why do I need to know this, this is literally why I have house elves."

"Maybe because if the world keeps changing as it is, House elves will be freed and you won't have them?" I retorted back to her.

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? We will always have house elves."

I rolled my eyes and drained most of the spaghetti. I then put some butter, the ragu, and the bit of starchy water together. I then put the pasta on two plates, and put the sauce on top, of course garnishing with parmesan cheese.

Meanwhile, Jaelah was carefully pouring her spaghetti out, not keeping any of the water. She then put cold water over top of the hot pasta. I shook my head, there was no saving that girl and cooking.

The professor came over and tasted the pasta (of course), and nodded, "Quite good Miss Salazar, are you a muggleborn per chance?"

I shook my head, "Sorry I'm not. My mother was delusional and tried to make me live the first several years of my life in the way of a muggle, to get the full experience of living I suppose. I cooked a lot."

"Very nice. Miss Phantomhive, I'm going to have to recommend you for remedial cooking. You are very obviously behind our students. You will be given your new schedule tomorrow."

Jaelah frowned and glanced at me, raising an eyebrow. I nodded and she grinned. I would help her out, because we had to stick together.

Next, we used the poisonous herb, which you threw in while the water was boiling, and essentially did the same thing. This time the professor did not go and try it out, likely because she wasn't interested in dying if someone did something wrong.

We left the course, and I looked at the schedule. "We already have a break? But we haven't been given any assignments yet?"

Jaelah grinned, "That means goof off time. Laters Vespera." She took off running, where to I didn't ask.

I went and grabbed my textbooks, and began reading the ones on attack and speed, what we would be having lessons in this afternoon. Finally, the hour had passed, and Jaelah came out of nowhere again.

"It says we have a lecture, Jaelah. I wonder what it's about?"

She shrugged, "I don't know, it's not like I'll be staying in there for very long. Not good enough for cooking? Maybe they should write their textbooks more detailed! Ugh, it's not fair at all."

Erikk came up behind us and picked Jaelah up from behind, spun her around, then kissed her cheek, "Hello Beautiful."

"Ew get a room you two," I smiled at them. Jaelah was radiant now, from her five second ago rant about the class.

"Oh, all-knowing tree boy, what can you tell us about this lecture thing?" Jaelah asked.

"The upperclassmen that are assigned to your group, or a professor if no student signed up for it, teach you stuff about whatever that day's practicum will be about. Today it will be a professor, because they haven't had a meeting with the students yet, but you'll know if a student is going to teach you or not. I'm off for cooking now, you two shouldn't be late to lecture, get a seat near the front, you aren't usually called if you sit in the front," with that Erikk ran away from us, headed the direction we just came from.

Jaelah and I went into the lecture hall and sat down towards the front middle, but not the very front desk, because everyone else was sitting closer to the back. "Your boyfriend didn't trick us into being the ones that are called on, did he?"

Jaelah shrugged as the professor walked in. "Hello students, if you can tell because you have me here, you will be having a student teach you for this lecture. It will be an older Smaragd student." The professor was Headmistress Knolle.

"For now, I give you your first day assignment. You are to read the first chapter of your attack and speed book, then write a three-page summary on each chapter. Due at tomorrow's lecture. You may begin at any time, class is dismissed."

Jaelah grinned, "I love short classes. I'll just do this during tomorrow's study hour."

"You go procrastinate silly creature. I'll be working on the summary. I'll see you at lunch okay?"

She nodded, and I went off to the library. I sat in the far back corner and began to write my summary. I was alone in my little corner, but that was how things should be. Being alone, no one else will get hurt once trouble finds me.

As it was nearing lunch time I packed my books away, shoving the attack summary in the book, and laying the unwritten speed summary paper back with the other paper.

If all we would do is cook and write summaries, this school was going to get boring very quickly.


	8. Chapter 7: PracticumsOh joy

**Here you go all! Another Chapter! I'm sorry it takes so long to post, college is busy!**

Leaving the library, I walked down to the dining hall. Already beginning to worry about the practicum that was to come.

I went and plopped in a chair at lunch and began to eat food. Jaelah and Bailey came and sat next to me while I was devouring a nice fluffy and warm roll.

They began their chats to each other, and I just zoned out. I felt someone poking my shoulder, and turned around. "Earth to Vespera. You okay?" Cenek sat next to me. "What's going on in that mind of yours Vespera?"

I shrugged, "Nothing much. Just thinking about the upcoming practicums. How they'll be like here and what not. How are you? How's your morning been?"

"It's been fine I suppose. Just been getting lectured on how to properly teach, and getting beat up a few times with my own practicums."

"What classes are you going to teach?" I asked hoping that he would say our lecture class.

"You should know, I did assign myself via your schedule. I'll be teaching your lecture and be annoying you guys during your practicum too, isn't that exciting?"

"Cenek, if you go easy on us that will be exciting," Jaelah replied grinning.

"I refuse to go easy on you. I want to see what you guys are really capable of. See if Hogwarts really is as good as you guys make it out to be. I heard Jaelah is already failing cooking class," Cenek began to pick on Jaelah.

"You're failing cooking? How are you failing cooking? It's literally one of the easiest classes out there Jaelah!" Erikk had come and joined us for lunch.

Jaelah spat out her water she had been drinking, "Ah, Beef Curtains!"

"I'm going to take that as a yes. I'll help you out Jae, don't worry. You'll be caught up in no time."

"Thanks, Erikk. I appreciate it," She smiled at him, then proceeded to throw a cupcake in his face. "That's for making me spit my water everywhere. No surprising me by showing up randomly."

Erikk rolled his eyes at her, "Half the fun of being with you is surprising you."

I rolled my eyes at them, "Stop being so cute y'all. You're going to make me throw up."

"Do you want to go to the battle room Vespera? You have warm-ups next, and likely want to make sure you're all set to do the practicum things," Cenek had a hint of worry, as though I wouldn't be able to handle the up-coming events.

"Are you doubting her because she can't walk proper? Because it sounds like you're doubting her," Jaelah leaned over and said to Cenek.

"I didn't mean that. I just meant we have a high rigorous standard here in practicums and you two aren't up to strength. You've been on Hogwarts standards, and from what I understand you don't have such classes of battle in Hogwarts."

"I'll go. I'm not that hungry anyways. I'll see you in class Jaelah. Enjoy your lunch, and don't be late. Please don't be late for once in your life." I pointed to Bailey, "Keep her in check, make sure she gets downstairs in time."

Bailey laughed, "Of course she will. Maybe. If I get there on time."

She smiled, and they both waved as Cenek and I left the dining hall, and went downstairs to the warm up rooms.

"Your main worry during all of this, will be not showing weakness. Anyone can see that your legs are weak, one kick to them and you could be hurt for life. I am sworn not to give any more hints until class starts, but that's a good starting point for you at least."

We started to do warm up stretches in silence, slowly the rest of the class came in and followed suit. When we had finished, we were split into groups, half of us were working on the attack, the other half working on speed.

I was assigned to speed, running.

A whistle blew, I took off, I went as fast as I could. I made it a few feet, before falling on my face because I couldn't really run like I was trying to. Cenek came up and brought me back to my feet, "Don't fall, don't hurt yourself. However, you need to try harder."

I sighed and walked, because much else was going to be too hard. After I felt like I was going to die from walking, Cenek finally spoke up, "Okay that's enough. Switch sides. Partner up. Salazar you're with me."

I sighed and walked over to Cenek, "What are we doing kind sir?"

"Seeing how strong your arms actually are, punch me."

I grinned, "With pleasure, since you can heal yourself I hope." With that, I put my arms up, and he nodded. I went straight for his gut, he must have thought I was going to weakly punch him.

I heard a weak "Oomph" come from his mouth, as he physically took a step backwards and put his hand on his stomach. "Okay, you're not that weak in your arms at all."

I smiled, "I rolled myself around in a wheelchair or held myself up by crutches over the past year and some more. Of course, I have strength in my arms. Oh, and I have a brother, I had to know how to properly punch him."

He nodded, "Noted. I'll actually defend myself this time. Attack with all your might."

So, I did, for the rest of the class. It was nice to be able to do something without any assistance, like braces or a wand. I could throw punches, and it would be all me.

It was nearing the last half hour of class, and Cenek had us partner up to fight each other. Jaelah partnered with me, and we had at it. She could run around me quicker than I could turn around, but I had upper arm strength to make more blowing attacks. Neither of us ever fell down, which was disappointing. I had hoped I would be able to beat her, just for bragging rights.

Cenek stopped us, and sent us on our way to clean up, declaring we were at a draw and we'd have to partner with other people next time.

We went into the dorms and showered, putting on comfortable clothes for dinner. I sat down and began working on the speed portion of the summary, while Jaelah was fixing her hair and Bailey was working on the attack portion.

"Jaelah, have you even started your homework?" Bailey asked.

"Eh, I'll get to it. It requires too much effort to get it all out now, just to have to put it away in twenty minutes."

"You're literally going to fail out of Stein if you don't work Jaelah," I reprimanded her.

She shook her head at us, "I never failed out of Hogwarts, I won't fail out of this. Hey Bailey, when will we get to do actual spell work, I didn't get to pull my wand out except to get the Gift Kuchen out of the ground."

"I mean we have an hour for magic Tuesday and Thursday, we don't have much need for magic by time we are at this level of education. We learn most spells during our first two years, and then focus on everything else until 5th year, when we have OWLs. Sometimes we will have full out wizard duels, there's a big rally on it. It's open for fourth years and older. You'll have to get Cenek's permission, since he's the one teaching our practicums. It's the only chance upper classmen really get a chance to do magic outside of the classroom. We become content to rely on ourselves, not on magic."

Jaelah scoffed, "That's ridiculous, why have magic if you won't use it?"

I threw a trashed piece of paper at her, "Because if you ever enter a magic barrier, and can no longer use magic, it would be smart to know how to do stuff."

She stuck her tongue out at me, "Whatever Vespera. Let's go put your stuff away so we can go eat. I have people to see."

"People to see? Don't you mean a boy to snog?" Bailey taunted her.

She growled, and stomped out, leaving us in chuckles. I put all my books away, and walked out the door and down the hall. I was then attack from behind, "Got ya!"

"So, kind of you Cenek to come sneaking up behind someone, next time put a silencing spell on your feet, I could hear you coming."

"Wasn't trying to sneak, was just trying to attack. What have you two been up to?"

"Torturing Jaelah, what else?"

"Not the best way to make new friends Bailey, but I do approve if it involved picking on her and the brother." We nodded, and he laughed, "Of course it did."

We went to dinner and enjoyed each other's company, before heading back to the dorms. I finished my essay, and then Jaelah came inside. She threw a scroll in front of me, "See I work, I have the Speed essay down. Just the attack one to go."

I laughed, "Good job Jaelah, but I'm going to bed now, goodnight." I threw the scroll back into her face, "You have three misspelled words in your essay. Have fun!" I then went into our room, and collapsed on my bed. I put up silencing wards as I had done so often. I pulled my orb that Jaelah had given me during our first year together. I wanted to see the joy of my past, the happy memories.

I watched them as though they were a movie. These memories no longer felt like they were mine, I was an outsider to them.

The girl I watched in the orb was happy and smiling. The girl that watched them had a hard life the last year.

I sighed as the memories stopped, there were even fewer than the night before.

I fell asleep, into my nightmares.


	9. Chapter 8: The Offer

**I bet you are in shock, my fellow readers. Two updates so close together?**

 **My goal is to update a lot during this month, as it's National Write a Novel Month, and this is basically a novel right? I may not finish it all, but here's to hoping!**

 **We don't own the spells, we don't own the idea, but for goodness sake we own Stein Zauberei!**

In the past month and a half since coming to Stein, we began to fit in. We hadn't learned much magic, but we had bettered on working together.

Cenek had put us into pairs, and of course Jaelah and I were together. We worked on partner magic, but that lead to a whole new conversation.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT MAGIC YOU SPECIALIZE IN?" Cenek yelled at me one day during breakfast.

The whole hall silenced and stared at us. I shrugged, "It's not something we talk about."

The hall slowly began to whisper again, "Let me guess, Jaelah doesn't know either?"

Jaelah plopped next to Cenek, "Jaelah doesn't know what?"

"Apparently there are different magics that we can draw energy from and it's specialized based off of our core. Isn't that neat?" I smiled at her.

"Hells yeah. Mine's probably fire. Remember I've always been good at fire spells? The one time I caught Pansy's stuff on fire!"

I laughed, "I could see that."

Cenek rolled his eyes at us, "All you have to do is take a blood test. It'll draw out everything of it. Want to see?"

He took a knife from the table and poked his finger, before casting his wand at it, and then dripping the drop of blood onto the paper in front of him. "There's a spell that goes with it, but I never can seem to remember it, it's an easy enough one to do without saying the spell name though, just think of your intentions." Suddenly the top of the water looked as though it was soaking wet, "My element is water, if you can't tell."

After that, several numbers and letters appeared, "What do those mean?"

"Different things, age, lineage, all sorts of stuff. It's pretty cool, want to try?"

Jaelah stood up, "I would, but some of us have cooking. I might get to move back to our year of cooking."

"I'm up for it, I have study hour," I replied.

Jaelah walked off as Cenek pricked my finger and the blood dropped on the paper. The paper was once again soaked with water. Then a bunch of random numbers and letters appeared.

Cenek was reading them off, "Let's see here, you have green eyes, blond hair, that much is obvious. That's weird, it doesn't know what your wand is."

"I'd tell you, but you wouldn't believe me. It's a long story."

He shrugged, and continued on, "It says you have several living family members that your blood is drawn to, if we'd done this on a map it'd be easier to tell where."

I stopped him, "Family members? I don't have anyone except for an older brother who I was adopted into his family."

He shrugged, "Guess your real family is still alive out there Vespera. Let's see, you have an estimated life span of five days... No wait. That's five years. That's a scary short time, better keep yourself safer Vespera. You've eaten some fruit this morning, obvious again as I've been sitting here the entire time while you were eating. It says if you were to be happier you need cake inside of you. Also, your current cake content is zero. It's been weeks since you've had cake, what the hack Vespera! Cake is life!"

I grinned, "Jaelah has been working on her baking, I have claimed that I can't eat cake because of a peanut allergy. I'm actually just terrified of her baking. I don't know if she's caught on yet."

He laughed, "That's a great reason, keep avoiding that and we'll go get you some good cake soon. What else is there..." he stopped talking and cast fire to the paper. "Come on we need to get to class," he got up and walked away, without saying anything to me.

I shrugged and started proofreading my potions essay that was due in a few hours. When it was closer to time I walked to the kitchens for baking class. I ran into Jaelah and stopped her, "For some reason Cenek stopped talking to me."

She nodded, "I'll ask Erikk and Chadwick. Someone must know."

I smiled, "Thanks." We continued on our way, and did classes until we finally had lunch.

I was later than usual, as such the only seat near someone I could tolerate was Flick.

"Hi Flick, how have you been?"

She smiled, "Hi Vespera. It's nice to see you again. School has been hard, I know a lot of spells but I'm falling behind, because I'm not good enough at transfiguring."

"You'll get it, and if not, there are other things that will help you through a fight other than transfiguring things."

"You're coming to our house for our Fall Break, right, Vespera?"

I raised my eyebrow at her while buttering my bread, "I didn't know anything was happening. I figured I'd be staying in the dorms or go home."

She shrugged, "Cenek has been going on and on about you to our parents, I think he likes you a lot. They said for him to invite you over to a formal dinner over break. Jaelah and Erikk will be there too. We've been instructed that unless we have an approved significant other, that we will be staying in our rooms. Which sucks, because my parents won't approve of a gir- I mean a boyfriend for me."

I grinned at her little slip up, "I think you should be able to date whoever you want. One day your parents will too. Right now, you're their little girl. They'll learn soon, so will the rest of the wizarding world."

She visibly relaxed, "Thanks Vespera. You're not too bad. So, are you going to come or not?"

I shook my head, "I don't think Cenek likes me much right now, he hasn't been talking to me. I guess we'll see if he asks me over before then, it's still a few weeks away until October."

She nodded, "I guess so. Shouldn't you be going? You did get here late, and it looks like a lot of your year is gone now."

I looked around, then at the time. Warm-ups started in less than a minute. "Gah! Yeah, I'm going. Nice to talk to you Flick!"

I quickly walked downstairs, to enter the warm up room five minutes late.

"Ah a volunteer! Warm up Salazar-Malfoy, you just signed that your team would be the first to do our mock battle."

"Sorry sir, aren't' we supposed to do a focus in individual skills?"

He glared, "If you were on time you'd know we changed the schedule. We are doing mock duels today. Stretch it out Salazar-Malfoy."

I walked over to Jaelah and whispered, "Eesh."

"No one knows what's wrong with him. Apparently, he's not acting different with anyone except you."

I sighed, "Oh well, thanks anyways. Sorry to have you be put in battle."

She shrugged, "Hey it'll be great." She grinned, "We're going to make a great team."

Once we warmed up we stood side by side, with several feet separating us. A pair of the boys came up to duel against us. "No dark magic just basic stuff. You can't rely on darkness always." He waved his arms, we bowed to each other, and we were off.

We hadn't thought of any battle plans, but we had been dueling with each other since we had started Hogwarts, we would be fine.

Jaelah pointed her wand at the boy, "Incendio!"

He jumped back, "As if that will stop me from killing you! Zusammenbruch!"

I waved my wand, "Protego!" The spell bounced off and aimed back toward the one who had cast it.

Suddenly from behind me I heard, "Locomotor Wibbly!"

I collapsed, my legs turning into jelly, but rolled over on my back and whispered, "Aqua Erecto." The guy was splashed in the face with a jet of water, I then turned back toward the first guy and splashed his face.

Jaelah grinned, "Incendio!" She cast toward the water, creating a hot steam into the first boy's face. He screamed and ran out of the room.

Jaelah grabbed my arm, whispered the anti-curse, and pulled me up, we were both against the second guy now. "You can give up now, or later," she warned, grinning.

"As if! Locomotor WIbbly!" He yelled again, this time we stepped apart, and the spell hit a student that was watching.

"Better work on your aim. Expelliarmus!" I pointed straight toward him, causing him to fall down, and his wand come to us. Jaelah grabbed it and we both grinned.

We looked at the timer that had been going, we had beaten them within three minutes.

The next group of four went up, while Jaelah and I went to watch the others. I began to feel dizzy and sat down. A pain went through my knee and I squeezed my fist tightly. I couldn't show weakness. It had to be from the curse that caught me off guard.

The pain was settling in, but still hurt. People kept choosing others to fight with, but no one ever challenged Jaelah and myself.

We went to leave, and Cenek yelled, "Salazar-Malfoy, stay put."

I shrugged and Jaelah left me. Cenek motioned for me to come forward.

I stood, and immediately fell because of my injury. Cenek stood up and ran over to me, "Why didn't you tell anyone you were hurt?"

"I wasn't going to show any weaknesses, why do you care all of a sudden?"

He sighed, "I care Vespera I really do. Come on, let's get you fixed up." He pointed his wand at my knee. Suddenly it popped back into place, causing much pain into my leg. "You should wear better leg coverings before duels Vespera."

I glared, "I would have if I knew we were doing actual duels today."

"Sorry, I was thinking through things and didn't want to teach. You and Jaelah are a good team, you're going to be put into the dueling competition, I think you'll go far. I needed to put a pair into the competition. Pending you both get proper defense gear, you'll go far. Do you want to go grab dinner?"

I glared at him, "So now you're doing to suddenly talking to me again?"

"Sorry, your thing caught me off guard. You said you were a full-blooded wizard. Why did you lie to me?"

"Is it really so dreadful that I am a muggleborn? That I was adopted into a great wizarding family? You've been mad at me all day, because everyone implies that I am a full-blooded wizard," I grabbed my bag and put my wand away. "Maybe you should learn to accept people who aren't what you think they are, before you go into your new profession."

I stomped off, leaving for the library. If I went to the dining hall he would find me, or Jaelah would ask what was up.

Not even ten minutes later Cenek came up to me, "I'm not going to tell anyone. I don't have anything against it either. I was just surprised. I suppose I should have noticed, since the magic couldn't heal you completely."

I shook my head, "Cenek I don't want to talk about it. I have homework."

He put his hand on my shoulder, "You don't have to talk about it. I just needed to tell you that I'm sorry."

I nodded, "Thanks Cenek." I looked up at him, "I'll eat dinner with you if you want. Once I finish this paper."

He grinned, "Sure." He sat down across from me and pulled out his own homework. Half an hour later we stood up and went down to the dining room to eat.

Flick came running towards us, "Cenek did you ask her yet?"

He glared at her, "Go away Flick." He made a flicking motion with his hand and she stuck her tongue out at him, winked at me, then took off.

"Asked me what Cenek?"

He sighed, "I wasn't going to ask you until later because I didn't want it to be awkward or anything. I mean it's not a big deal or anything? It's just something my parents do every year, and they've been after me to invite you, because they think we're more than friends, but we aren't yet and, so I was thinking about asking you, but I wasn't sure. Usually I just spend time with the younger kids while the older ones enjoy the meal. Because like having a romantic anything was never in my plans. Plus, my family usually pretends I don't exist, so it's easier to just fly under the radar of such events as this. Like I said I wasn't going to even ask until later because I don't want it to be awkward or anything because it's no big deal and -"

I put my hand over his mouth, "Flick already told me about it, no need to explain. I'll go with you." I smiled, "As long as you keep my secret safe."

"Thanks, Vespera. It won't be weird will it?"

I shook my head, "Of course not. It'll be weirder for your family. They'll actually have you both at the table for once!"

He laughed, "You have a good point. Jaelah and Erikk will be there by the way. And basically, every other older kid that's at the house." He sighed, "Flick wants to go to the event too, but they won't accept her relationship," he rolled his eyes. "She's precious and I just don't think they know how to deal with her being the different one of the family."

I frowned, "I wish that we could do something for her. Though, is she in a relationship with anybody? I wasn't aware?"

Cenek nodded, "Like I said, a lot of people won't accept it. She told me because she knew I wasn't generally accepted in the family either so. Actually, it's with Morganthe, the other girl in your year. Yeah Morgan is an oddball, but no one else would work for our Flick now would it? They're actually really precious together. They've been friends since birth practically, but no one thought anything of it. Then all of a sudden last month, right after school has started, Flick comes up to me and tells me that she likes Morgan as more than just friends, but doesn't know how Morgan would feel. Well, that escalated and now you have Flick and Morgan on the downlow as more than friends."

"That's cute, I'm glad they both have someone that makes them happy. If anything, maybe Morganthe won't come and be as strange as she usually is in the mornings," I tried to laugh it off. "Anyways, when will you be telling Jaelah?"

"Tell Jaelah what?"

"Our lovely teacher here has informed me that we will be competing in the school duels that go on," I grinned toward her.

She jumped up and clapped, "This is so exciting! I cannot wait to tell Erikk! He'll flip out. We will have to work on our spells some more though, we can't put out each other's spells. Oooooo and we should make code names, because let's face it saying each other's full names will just take too long. Maybe Bill, or Nancy. Maybe I can call you Star!"

I shot that one down quickly, "No you will not call me Star. Only Fred gets to do that and that's because he's weird."

She continued on as though that meant nothing, "Polly? Mary? Daisy? Oliver? Jacob? John? Jimmy? Bob? THERE ARE SO MANY OPTIONS FOR THINGS WE COULD BE CALLED BY VESPERA!"

I put my forehead on the table, "Why not go by our actual names?"

She stuck her tongue out at me, "Because Vespera Azalea Salazar-Malfoy is a mouthful and I can't say that in the middle of a duel."

I rolled my eyes and muttered, "I can call you Jae and you can call me Ves?"

I glanced up and her face was lit up, "I have it! You can call me Jae, you know like short for Jaelah. I'll call you V, like really short for Vespera. I'd say Ves, but if I'm going to call you that Vespera just rolls off the rest of the way. I like it. Jae and V, the third-year stars of Smaragd. It has a nice ring to it; don't you think so Cenek?"

I looked over my shoulder and Cenek was crying from laughing so much, "I don't think I've ever seen you with so much energy."

"Well, I like magic. I'm actually good at that," Jaelah shrugged. "When do the duels start?"

"October 31st, Halloween night. You'll get some letters about it later on, once I submit your names. In addition, you'll both need to get better battle gear. You have decent training gear, but you need the next step up. Do you think you can manage that?"

"Yeah, we'll get it done, don't fret. I'll keep Jaelah here under control."

She stuck her tongue out at me, "You shut it Vespera."

We went in for the night, and prepared for the next day, when we would have our mandatory meeting again and have to sit through a whole other hour of non-productivity, especially for those of us who had nothing wrong.


	10. Chapter 9: That was Awkward

**I'm sorry. I said I would post bunches. But I forgot to post them. Take this as compensation, we will post many more chapters fairly quickly! Just trying to word check them.**

It was once again, the dreaded time. October 15th, we were called to have a meeting with our house to talk about everything. It was the Friday before break, once we finished our meeting we would be going home, and I'd be going to the Knolle Hole for dinner. We would return on the 25th of October, with a week to prepare for the duels that would come up.

We all gathered into the common room and sat wherever we pleased. Many of us had begun to carry our homework with us to these meetings, because we knew we wouldn't talk, and so did everyone else. Seele began reading the list, asking each student what they would be doing over break. Finally, she got to my name.

"Vespera, what will you do over the next week?"

I shrugged, "I'm going over to the Knolle's for dinner with Cenek, Jaelah, and Erikk. After such matter, I'll probably go to the Malfoy manor, and stay locked in my room reading the rest of the week."

"Why would you stay in your room on purpose? Wouldn't it be nice to get out of there, to see your family?" Seele asked, as though she was probing for information to come from me.

"I have a father who will be on a business trip, a mother who is taking care of the house, and an obnoxious brother who will still be at Hogwarts. I might as well stay in my room. I'll probably get ahead on homework and such."

Seele frowned, but continued, "Jaelah, what are your break plans?"

"I was going to jailbreak my best friend. Then we were going to torture my sister some. However, I just found out that she's willingly putting herself into her jail and not actually being forced there," Jaelah glared at me while I gave her a slight grin. "As such, I will probably work on the cooking and baking things, so I can actually be in the classes with my same year."

Seele seemed to accept this answer and continued forward.

When she reached Cenek's name he shrugged, "I have dinner like Vespera said. Then I'll study for my exams."

One of the other kids scoffed, "Yeah he doesn't have anything to worry about. His family will accept him just fine. 'Oh, I'll study.' yeah right. You'll probably run around with daddy and mommy and enjoy your break unlike the rest of us who fear going home."

Cenek's eyes looked downcast, and he didn't defend himself. I glared at the kid who spoke up, "Don't act like your life over break is going to be so horrid. I heard you yesterday, you're not going home to the ones who have hurt you. You'll be at the beach with your friends you've made here. Cenek has to go back home to a life you may not know about, why don't you give him some respect. If you don't want to, maybe you'd like me to teach you some."

The same kid laughed, "We all know that I can outrun you in any moment, I'm not afraid of you."

Seele in her usual calm self, thought we would talk it out, she encouraged it. I glared at the kid, and pulled out a book. The kid laughed, "I knew you weren't up for a challenge."

"A true fighter knows that one should wait until it's least expected. I expect you to apologize for your rudeness, and will persist until you have done so."

Cenek looked at me and whispered, "Don't worry about it Vespera."

I shrugged, "Whatever." I scanned the page. I had been reading books for duel club, and knew that somewhere in this book would be a curse that even the kid wouldn't expect from me.

They continued around, and when the kid spoke up he said where he was going, to hang out with friends to avoid his family. I looked up and locked eyes with him, I whispered, " _Augen einfrieren._ "

He didn't realize anything was wrong, only Jaelah had heard me cast my spell and seen my wand move in two arcs. The kid wouldn't be able to blink, slowly he would just be uncomfortable until his eyes dried out and he went to the clinic. Jaelah nodded at me, and we finished up our meeting.

Cenek took my arms and pulled me back up, "Thanks for trying to defend me, but it's fine really. Don't worry about it. I'm used to it, no need to get revenge."

I shrugged, "Too late." I looked at the boy, and saw his eyes turning red. He was scratching at them, but hadn't noticed what was wrong yet. "I was studying and found a great test subject."

Cenek rolled his eyes, "What am I going to do with you?"

"Accept that you found a good person to fight in the duels."

He nodded, "You aren't wrong, you ready to go find the others?"

"Yeah, let's go to the office and find the parents," I paused, "Why do we always use magic to get to the house? It's not a far walk I thought?"

He shrugged, "I don't know, we just do. We can monitor people who enter and exit I guess." We started walking before Jaelah came behind me and jumped on my back.

"What the heck Jaelah!" I made two steps before my knees started to give out, and I collapsed, dropping Jaelah.

Cenek bent to the ground, "You okay?" He picked me up and supported me.

"I'll be fine."

Jaelah stood up and brushed herself off, "Thanks for helping me up too. Thanks for dropping me. Yeah whatever." She stuck her tongue out at me and then kept walking off.

"What's her problem?" Cenek asked.

"She's a grump? I'm not sure. At this rate we're never going to get to the house though, come on!" I walked faster and Cenek ran up, and threw me over his shoulder. "Gah! Put me down!" He started to run as I was kicking and laughing through the school.

We got to the main office and received many funny looks. Cenek sat me down, smiling, and we all took the floo to the Knolle Hole.

Upon arriving, Flick asked, "May I have Morgan over? We wanted to work on our homework."

Her parents nodded, "Very well, ask if she may stay the night. She can help watch the other children, she always has gotten along with them very well."

Flick grinned, "Thank you." She then skipped off and I giggled, knowing the truth.

We all sat down at the dinner table, the boys pushing our chairs in. Cenek leaned over, "I'm sorry. This is so awkward."

I whispered back, "I can always practice spells if it gets too bad."

He glared at me, and went to his seat.

"So, Chadwick, how are classes going?" his parents asked the twin.

"Oh, they're wonderful! Yesterday in class, we got to pluck the feathers off the phoenix and send them in for wands! We are also working on a potion that will cure all ailments! We haven't gotten very far on it, but we're hoping we get through it before finals. Speaking of, what's the final exam going to be this year father?"

Headmaster Knolle answered, "It wouldn't be fair if I told you all, but it has an emphasis on dark magic and tag teaming. Speaking of, Jaelah, Vespera, I hear you two will be in the tournaments?"

Jaelah and I nodded, but Jaelah spoke up, "Certainly we will be. We've been practicing, I just don't know how we will ever beat all the higher up students that have had so much more practice than us. It's hard catching up to the spells they all know!"

Cenek was trying to stifle a laugh, and started to feign a cough when his dad glared at him. "Well, I'm sure they'll go easy on you, won't you Chadwick?"

Chadwick nodded, "I always go easy on the third-year students, but I'm not going to let you win!"

I smiled, "Thank you for giving us a chance to not look like complete fools Chadwick!"

He grinned, as though he was so proud of himself for doing something kind, "Anytime. Speaking of, do you guys need help with your spells?"

Jaelah looked at Erikk who smiled and nodded, "Certainly Chadwick! Some defensive spell help would be much appreciated!"

Chadwick looked at Cenek, "Say, why don't you enter in the tournament this year? You haven't done that in a while."

Cenek shrugged, "I've been putting all my time into training these two. Plus, I don't want to make it to the final round and have to fight to the death with them, I'd be a goner."

I looked at him with my eyes wide open, "The final is a fight to the death?"

He shrugged, "Not officially, but unofficially, yes. Whoever makes it to the end is usually going so hard they accidentally kill the other. I was going to tell you guys if you made it there but..."

I smacked my head on the table, "What's a year of school without potential death threats/"

Jaelah grinned, "We'll be fine Vespera! We have enough control that we cannot kill!"

Chadwick held out his hand, "Let me see your wand, how powerful is it?"

Jaelah shrugged and pulled out a wand and handed it to him. "This is the one I've been using."

He looked at it, "Kaya wood and Phoenix feather, 7 inches. Not a bad wand. Where did you get this from? Kaya wood isn't something that's used in British wands very often."

Jaelah smiled, "It's from my grandparents, they brought it from Japan and had it made into a wand. Though, you aren't that great at identifying wands."

He handed it back, "You just confirmed I was right on the wood, what's the core made from then? I know my way around wands, I know that was a phoenix feather inside of it."

"Firstly, it's handle is made of a yew wood, while only it's body is made of Kaya wood. The main core is a phoenix feather, but it's coated in basilisk venom, and the quill has a chimera scale embedded inside of it. That, and it's obvious that there are sapphires and bloodstones embedded throughout, it gives the wood lines of the Kaya wood an ice glow, if you would like to demonstrate Vespera."

I smiled and pulled out my wad, "Lumos Solem." A bright stream of light hit Jaelah's wand and created a fabulous color. "You know, it's said that yew wood has dark leanings, ad kaya has a nice flair with the logical arts."

Chadwick had a horrified look on his face, Jaelah spoke up, "I've changed my mind, I don't want your help with the dueling, I'll handle it myself."

She laughed, and Cenek, Erikk, and myself all lost it as well. "You'll have a hard time beating us Chadwick, you'll wish you never came across us."

Jaelah calmed down quickly, "If I may be excused? Vespera and I really should be getting home to our families."

The Knolle parents nodded, and everyone stood. "It was a pleasure to have you for dinner, and I hope you can visit again soon. Best of luck with your studies. Cenek, Erikk, show them out please."

They nodded, and we left the room. I could hear a great sigh of relief, "I didn't think they would ever leave. That was the worst" I could hear from Aldrick.

'Well, glad to be gone from that. You'd think our charms would have worn off on them more."

Cenek nodded at me, "You would think, but hey, they called me by something different at least!"

"Chadwick, we always call you by the right thing. Erikk took Jaelah's hand and kissed it. "I'll see you next week."

Jaelah nodded ad took the floo to her home. I sighed, "They'll learn one-day Cenek. I hugged him, "I'll see you when we get back to school."

With that, I too took the floo and went home to see my empty house at the Malfoy Manor.


	11. Chapter 10: Halloween, Never Safe

**AN: Sorry guys for such a long wait, and a short chapter. The next chapter skips to December, but things get real at that point. I'll be posting two or three chapters back to back shortly, so be expecting!**

* * *

I spent my break reading up on various spells that I could use. I needed to be able to win duels as quickly as possible. I couldn't rely on little pranks to win, I needed to use the strongest dark magic I could learn. I spent day in and out trying out the spells on a dummy that was in the dungeon of the Malfoy manor. However, practicing on a non-moving object was significantly easier than trying to hit an object that would run and defend.

The break flew by and it was the night before we headed back to Stein, I looked into my orb, as I often did at night, and watched my happiness go by. Flying on brooms, meeting Jaelah at the ball, having a family, and then nothing. My orb stopped showing as many happy memories, it was as if the orb was not capable of recovering them from my memories.

I fell asleep for the night, my usual nightmares coming across to me.

* * *

October 25th, the day we had been waiting for. I fixed my hair, my outfit, and my books. I grabbed a handful of floo powder, "Knolle Hole!" I then jumped into the fireplace.

Upon exiting, I landed on my feet, and I shouted, "YES!" Before then stumbling forward and falling.

Cenek came running down the steps, "I heard you yelling, what was that for?" He grabbed my arms and helped me up.

"Well, I actually landed on my feet for once leaving the floo. Although, I failed once I got excited. Oh well. Got any plans before we have to be back for the next meeting?"

He shook his head, "I was reading my texts. We do have final exams, and seventh year exams aren't usually that easy."

"Something bothered me Cenek, why did Chadwick say you should enter in the competition? Are you a decent fighter?"

He waved me on, and we went up to his room. He opened the door, and I saw it for the first time. It was covered with awards, quidditch pictures, and many other shiny items. His bed was a dark wooden poster bed, with deep scarlet sheets. "Wow, this is impressive."

He shrugged, "I tried to stand out with my family. I played junior quidditch growing up," he pointed to the wall. "Chadwick was better though. I gave up and switched to baking competitions. Let me tell you, I made a great apple pie. I started to receive national recognition for it. Chadwick didn't like the attention I was getting and poisoned it at the last stage of finals though, my name was ruined. There was one thing he never could beat me at though. Fighting." He went to the largest wall of his room and I examined better. There were many pictures, Chadwick and Cenek standing next to each other, holding a victory cup from a fight they had done. The brothers mid duel with another set of wizards. "That all ended though, when we were put into individual leagues." He pointed to the last bit of the wall.

I read the caption out loud, "A duel of all duels. Brothers Cenek and Chadwick Knolle to fight against each other in the finals of the International Pre-Teen Dueling Convention." The picture was the same as the very first one, them holding a cup together for winning. I looked at the one following it, "Winner declared: Cenek Knolle wins the Finals. Declared International Pre-Teen Dueling Wizard Champion!"

"I won that year, Chadwick challenged me again the following year. I did it, and I won again. We fought during school duels together, no one could beat us. But during the summer, we fought against each other. We went into the adult section the next year. At 13, we were considered the same league as adults. I went all at it, I made it into the finals, Chadwick couldn't make it into the qualifying round. The next year, he swore he would make it. We fought in the semi-finals against each other. I won, though I didn't win finals, I was in second place. My next year, I was 15 by this point, I entered, and Chadwick didn't even try. He was the best support though. I won finals again that year." He pointed to the last picture on the wall. "I didn't fight in the school duels after that last one. I stopped fighting the International duels as well." He shrugged, "I was good though, but I don't miss the stress. Although, it was the one reason why my parents tried to set me and Chadwick apart, but I ruined it."

"What made you stop Cenek? If you were good?"

"Nova and Hayley. Nova killed herself one morning, I went in. Her parents had sent her a note. They had given birth to a little girl, a girl that would be perfect unlike her. They told her to do well in school and they may let her live in the same house come break. They were rough, but she was failing transfiguration, herbology, and defense magic practicum. She wrote below it that she couldn't, and she was sorry." He wrapped his arms around himself. "She came to me that night, she said she was sorry, but it was better. She said she wanted me to keep fighting, but I couldn't without her. Hayley was killed the next day, she was in practicums and wasn't watching herself, or maybe she was. She ran right into someone's death trap. I couldn't anymore. There's no one left to fight for you know? Chadwick started fighting again, but he found a new partner to team up with. I stepped out of the picture ad let him have all the glory."

"I'm sorry Cenek. I really am."

He shook his head, "Just go back to Stein and work on your magic with Jaelah. I'll be there later." I nodded and walked out, leaving him alone. I heard him whisper as I was walking out, "I've never told anyone, Vespera. Thank you."

With that I left back to Stein officially, and went to work with Jaelah on our spells, we had to win.

* * *

"Jaelah, you know we've never had the best of luck on Halloween! First with the pranks and a troll, then with Ms. Norris and the basilisk! Yeah nothing could go wrong on Halloween!"

She rolled her eyes at me, "That was Hogwarts, it'll be fine here!" She threw a pair of dragon hide boots at me. "Hurry up and get ready so we can see when we'll fight."

I stuck my tongue out at her, "Of course you didn't have to deal with the Basilisk. You would be fine if anything happens."

She nodded, "Exactly, now come on we're going to be late!" She pulled me up and we ran (rather I walked, and she ran far in front of me) to the duel hall.

Once we entered (she stopped and waited for me to catch up with her) we looked at our fights.

"We're going against a couple of Topas in the first duel. Looks like we're the very first to go too."

Jaelah grinned, "We're going to win against those two. Who's in the next round against us?"

I looked across, "I don't recognize the names. They're fighting against, Chadwick and Cenek? He said he wasn't fighting though?"

That was when I heard yelling from behind us, "WHY DID YOU SIGN MY NAME UP TO FIGHT? YOU KNEW I DID NOT WANT TO DO THIS CHADWICK!"

"It's your final year, you should get back into the real world Cenek. You can actually do something with your life you were good at!"

Cenek punched the wall, making a physical dent in the concrete. "I didn't want to do this Chadwick! This isn't my life anymore!"

"Suck it up buttercup. You're in this now, you know the rules, no going back once the charts are made. I'll see you in half an hour for our duel. Go help your little munchkins out with theirs," with that Chadwick left.

Cenek looked at us, we nodded, and he took off.

We were guided into the back room of the main dueling room. We saw the other duelists that were going to be going at it later in the day. "It's kind of impressive how together everyone is."

I glanced around nervously, "Jaelah, how did we get ourselves talked into this?"

She shrugged, "Don't be nervous now Vespera. Come on, stretch it out. We have months after this to get ready for dueling lover boy. If you need motivation for not losing this, just pretend your opponent is Draco."

I giggled, "Great motivational speech right there Jae. Keep it up."

She pulled her hair into a ponytail. "Any time V. Let's go and make this quick. I didn't eat second breakfast and I'm starving."

"You mean you didn't eat lunch. It's not time for lunch yet. It's 9 in the morning. I know you ate breakfast. I sat right next to you at 7 this morning and ate with you."

"No no no. I mean second breakfast. Then it's elevenses. THEN it's lunch time. Man, I'm starved just thinking about food."

I shook my head, "You might be crazy Jaelah. Do we need to have you tested?"

Headmaster Knolle came up to us and nodded, "Are you ready?"

We grinned, "Of course."

He went out, and we followed him into the main room, which basically every student of Stein had to be in. I whispered to Jaelah, "I didn't realize how serious this would be taken."

"You... Do you live in a bubble? It's all everyone has been talking about!"

I shrugged, "Eh let's get this over with." We both pulled out our wands, and everyone except the Knolle clan booed at us, as though hoping we would lose by them making rude noise. We bowed to our opponents, and then went back to our own sides. Then, we began to duel.

I was hoping for some kind of grand fight to happen, but suddenly it made sense why the entire school tried to boo us off our game. I shouted, "Expelliarmus" and the first Topaz fighter basically let go of his wand.

"Yo, that was really cool. You should show me that spell sometime."

I looked at him in horror, "That was a beginning spell. How do you not know it?!"

Jaelah laughed, she pointed her wand toward the other duelist and bright green sparks came out. He yelped and dropped his wand. We had quickly won.

Everyone started yelling insults, as if we did not fight fair. I pulled Jaelah away, before she could become aggressive with the crowd. We went back outside and watched the remainder of the duels that followed ours.

We made it back around, just in time to watch Chadwick and Cenek win their duel. It was interesting to see the completely different person Cenek was when he fought. Instead of being reserved like he usually was, he went all out.

It would be an interesting fight in January, because Jaelah and I would be against Cenek and Chadwick.

I wasn't sure if I was ready for that.

Afterwards we all went back to our respective dorms, and Jaelah and I took a much-needed shower. When we left our room Erikk was standing outside and wrapped his arms around Jaelah, "Way to go! That was brilliant. You didn't even have to use a spell to win."

She shrugged, "We were against the lamest house ever, next time will be interesting."

He frowned, "I'm not sure who to cheer on, my brothers or my girl... That's something I'll have to think about."

I smacked his arm, "You better cheer for your girl, because she'll come back and haunt you if you don't."

"Oh, by the way Vespera, Chadwick was looking for you. Something about wanting to make sure you were okay after your duel," Erikk waved me off, as him and Jaelah walked toward his dorm.

I rolled my eyes, he likely meant Cenek, so I went to try to find him. I walked through the corridors, hoping Cenek would appear, suddenly I was jerked to the side. I smiled, thinking it was Cenek, only to be surprised when it wasn't. One of the Topaz wizards had pulled me away. "Listen up little Snake, you will not go much further in this tournament. How dare you try to make us look like fools in front of our own school? You'll pay for this." They took a chocolate truffle and shoved it into my mouth. "Swallow you Brit," they said as they held my wrists with one of their hands, and held my nose and mouth shut with the other.

I had no choice but to swallow, and then they released me. I grinned, "That was a good truffle, where'd you get it from?"

They grinned devilishly, "I made it in cooking class today, Good luck, I'm the best of my class, especially with poisonous truffle dust." They walked away, and then I felt their dust kick in. I doubled over, grabbing my sides., and then falling to the ground. I tried to cough it back up, but there was no such luck.

I felt someone force something liquid down my throat, and I swallowed, hoping it would kill me quicker or save me. Luckily, it was the later, and I felt much better. I looked up and saw Cenek. "Who did this to you?"

I shook my head, "I don't know their name, it was one of the Topaz wizards of today, they didn't like that we out did them."

Cenek frowned, "It's something you have to watch out around here, but I didn't think they would come after you." He handed me two potion bottles, "If anything like this happens again, take this vial, half a vial if it's normal food, the whole thing if it's a dessert. If you have any doubts, just take the whole thing." He stood, and pulled me up, "Now if you don't mind, I have some revenge to go pull." With that, Cenek turned to leave, "Oh by the way, good job on the duel! I'll see you in round two!" With that, Cenek took off down the hallways.

I mumbled to myself, "Can't ever have a normal Halloween."

* * *

 **More to come soon!**


	12. Chapter 11: The truth of year 1

**This is a massive jump from the last one, we're in Christmas now!**

 **WARNING: This Chapter contains some stuff. Nothing Graphic, but be on the lookout, or skip it all together. You will not be in the dark if you skip the chapter. You will only miss the night of December 19th until the mid-point of the night of December 22nd, at which point I will start a new chapter.**

 **I love you my readers, carry on.**

* * *

We finally got all Jaelah's stuff packed away, the night of December 19th (because apparently, she had to take every single belonging of hers back home for the short time she would be gone). "I'll see you soon Jaelah, it's only a week."

She smiled, "I know, but I'd prefer to be here with you and the Knolles. Too bad I have to go and have family vacation with the evil one."

"You'll survive. Plus, Cenek said they might try to get you away for Christmas Eve, but you didn't hear it from me."

She grinned, "Really? That's great!" She looked over at Bailey, "Say, what are you doing over break?"

Bailey shrugged, "I'm not sure yet. I'm going home and probably just reading. They must have me there to keep up appearances though. Why aren't you going back, Vespera?"

"The same reason that you are, the family has to keep up appearances and a girl with braces is not a wizarding appearance. I am a living masterpiece of muggle devices. Anyways, Seele said a lot of people were staying from the lower years, I won't be alone."

They both hugged me, "Goodbye Vespera, we'll see you soon!"

I let go of them and waved as they left, "See you in a week!"

I went into my room and closed the door, put on pajamas, and collapsed. It had been a long few months full of excitement and learning. It would be nice to be able to sleep all I wanted tonight though. When my head hit the pillow, I was basically instantly asleep.

 _I saw them coming for me. Attacking me. Not giving me the opportunity to fight back. Taking everything they could away from me. I tried to fight, but the hooded figures wouldn't give in. I was in the dungeon, they had done their worse. Snape came for them. I was dying. They didn't know how much I was dying. I screamed, trying to get anyone to hear me, but no one came. No one would come._

"Vespera! Come on, Vespera! Wake up!" I heard yelling. That voice didn't belong in my relapsing nightmare. They weren't from Hogwarts. I felt someone shaking me, "Come on, Ves! Wake up, it's just a dream."

I felt someone sit me up and wrap their arms around me. I opened my eyes and saw Cenek. "I'm sorry I woke you up, Cenek. I must have forgotten to put my silencing wards up."

He held me an arm's distance away, "This isn't the first time you've had that dream, is it?"

I looked at him, "I don't want to talk about it, Cenek."

"Whatever happened in that nightmare, that's why you are in Smaragd isn't it? That's how you were hurt."

I tilted my head and stared at him, "What part of 'I don't want to talk about it' do you not understand?" I pulled my wand out and started putting wards over my bed, "Go away, Cenek. I'll see you in the morning." Cenek nodded and left while I curled up and didn't fall back asleep. Someone knew I had nightmares and my secrets were all going to come out soon.

I pulled out my orb. It showed me riding on a broom and meeting Jaelah, the only things I had left to enjoy.

* * *

I got up at 6 in the morning, out of sheer habit. I didn't need to be awake this early on break, but at least this way I would maintain my usual schedule. I put on clothes and spelled my face, so I wouldn't look exhausted.

I walked out of my room and into our common area. Seele was there, "Young Vespera, your friend came to me in worry last night. I will not force you to talk to him, however, I would highly encourage you to talk to someone. It is time. You will begin to lose yourself if you let your dreams go on. They'll attack you and kill you slowly from the inside. It may be winter break; however, we will still be having our mandatory meeting for all of those who will be on campus tonight in the Smaragd house. You are expected to attend, and again, I highly encourage you to speak up."

I smiled at Seele, "Thank you for the kind advice, however, I will not be speaking up." I continued on my way and sat in the dining hall. It was still empty, as it usually was at this time of day, except normally I had Cenek to keep me company. I refused to see him today though.

At 7, Erikk came up to me and sat down, "He's upset you know."

I looked at Erikk and smiled, "Well, hello to you too. Whatever do you speak of?"

He shook his head, "Hi Vespera. You know I speaketh of Cenek. He came into Rubin last night at three in the morning, woke up Chadwick, they whispered. Chadwick nodded, Cenek left. He was crying, Vespera. They thought I didn't hear, but I did. Cenek told Chadwick to keep an eye out on you, because you didn't want to talk to him, but something was wrong. Honestly, I wouldn't doubt if the entire Knolle family knows by now that you and Cenek aren't talking. Cenek went home, why else would he go home except to get away from the girl who has his heart. He'll be back tonight for the meeting I'm sure. He just wants to help you, Vespera. He doesn't know how because you're stubborn and won't talk. Give him a chance."

I rolled my eyes, "I'm fine, Erikk. Tell that to the rest of the Knolle clan too. I didn't appreciate Cenek waking me up at oh dark hundred, pardon me if I wasn't up to talking to him." I stood up as my plate disappeared, "I knew I should have went home."

With that I walked out of the dining hall and into the exercise rooms. I might as well be productive since I was here. I wrapped my wrists and knuckles and began to attack the punching bag. I might not be able to run fast, but I hoped that I would be able to pack quite a punch to any enemy.

"What'd that punching bag ever do to you?" I heard a chuckle then someone grabbed the bag.

"Go away, Cenek. Aren't you supposed to be home for the day anyways?"

He shook his head, "Chadwick refused to listen to my request, so I stayed around. I'll leave you alone Vespera. I just don't want to lose you too."

"Don't worry. If anything is going to kill me it's going to be exams or a practicum."

He nodded and let go of the bag, "Have at it then. I'll see you tonight."

I turned and held out my arm to stop him, "Want to play quidditch?"

He grinned, "Finally get to see you in action? Hell yeah!" He grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the brook closet. He pulled out his team broom and went to hand me one of the others.

I shook my hand, pulled out my wand, and whispered, "Accio, broom!" Just then my favorite broom came to me. "I'm not going to play on a stranger's broom, let's go."

We walked out onto the open field and I jumped on my broom, "A few warm up laps?" He nodded, and we took off. I laughed at the feeling of air hitting my face and thrill of going in the air so quickly. The main problem being I couldn't go as quickly as I liked. I landed and sat down on the ground.

Cenek landed next to me, "I thought you were the quickest there was. That didn't seem so fast to me."

I undid my braces, laid them on the ground, then crawled back onto my broom. "I haven't competitively been on a broom since October, my first year of Hogwarts. I was the best Slytherin had seen. I was promised a spot before I was sorted into Hogwarts. We had a few weeks until our first game, they had us running a hard practice. Someone hit one of the balls with a bat, it activated a curse, which then hit me, causing me to fall off my broom. It broke my back, then the captain tried to move me and made it worse, I spent a month in rehabilitation at St Mungo's, but made it back to school. Not even allowed to take a flying course at Hogwarts. Then of course I was lucky enough to be put into a wheelchair, and then braces. And the whole point of this was to tell you I am out of shape, and those braces were weighing me down. Let's go." I took off on my broom again and this time could feel myself at the same speed as I had been before.

I heard a long whistle, "Wow, you really are as good as Jaelah thought."

I looked down and waved at Erikk, "You're welcome to come up, I can beat the both of you at once."

Erikk chuckled and got on his broom, "Two against one hardly seems fair, but if you say so."

Cenek pulled out a snitch and released the bludger. "First team to catch the snitch or make 150 points with the bludger wins."

Chadwick appeared, "Only if I get to play too!"

"Seems like we're having a two on two now. Smaragd against Rubin? Treat it like an actual quidditch match with one less ball and several less players," I grinned.

The others nodded, Cenek and Chadwick getting onto their brooms, and Erikk yelled, "Ready, and go!"

We took off, I glanced back and forth for the snitch. I stopped moving and glanced around. I saw a golden glint and I was off. I caught the snitch and went into the middle of the field. "Not too shabby?"

Erikk tapped his wand, "12 minutes, not bad. You guys win. I can't believe we only got 50 points." He glared at Chadwick, "You need more practice dear brother."

Cenek smiled at me, "You are quick on that broom. It's a shame you can't play for our team. It would be great."

I shrugged, "Well, some things just aren't meant to be. Want to go again?"

They shook their heads, "Feel free to go around in circles though, Vespera."

I grinned, "I will." With that, I took off. I started doing laps around the field. That is, until it started to snow. I landed toward my braces and rolled off my broom. I attached them again, and Cenek was there and helped me stand up.

"You really are a natural flyer. Maybe one day you can be on your broom again."

I shook my head, "I can't. It's not my thing." I began walking away, but he wouldn't let it go.

"You're in love with being in the air though. You were up there for three hours just making circles. How can you say you just don't want to do it anymore?"

"Cenek, if I play quidditch I can be killed or hurt again. I don't know which is worse, but I can't handle either one. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go shower before the meeting tonight. See you then."

I walked into the bathroom of my dorm and got into the shower. I did enjoy quidditch, more than anything. But quidditch required locker rooms, closed spaces, and right before you entered the field a dark enclosed place. I couldn't do it. I cleaned myself off, and as I was turning off the tap, all the lights went out.

I began to panic. The darkness, it was getting cold and I was soaked. I went to stand up, to get out of the shower. I couldn't walk though; my legs didn't have the proper support for walking. I fell forward hitting the floor, the last thing I saw was nothing, the pitch-black nothingness, and myself being left alone to die.

* * *

(Enter Temporarily Cenek's PoV)

The meeting of the Smaragds began. Seele began to take role of the people who were still around. She said their name, they recognized they were there, or they began speaking of whatever they wanted.

She got to the third years, only one was staying. "Vespera Salazar-Malfoy." Seele looked around, "Cenek, go and retrieve Vespera. She is required to attend this meeting and we will not continue without her."

I stood up and went over to her door. I knocked then opened the unlocked door. The room was empty. I began to think the worse, she had gone off somewhere. Her fears had finally gotten her. I knocked on the bathroom door, it was locked from the inside. I pulled out my wand, "Alohomora." The door clicked open, and I went in, prepared for the worst. "Vespera?" I called.

"I'm in here, give me a minute." I heard her voice, she was still alive.

I looked down at the floor, "Vespera, why is there a lot of blood on the floor?"

She stepped out from the shower stall, fully clothed with a towel held onto her head. "How good are you at healing spells?"

I motioned for her to move the towel and she did so, "Tergeo," I point to her head, and all the dried blood vanished. "Vulnera Sanentur," I pointed at the gash, and it closed itself up. "Now come on Miss, you have some explaining to do and Seele is waiting for you."

She grinned slightly, "Sorry." As we walked out and back to the main room. "I'm sorry everyone for being late. The lights in the bathroom went out, I tripped and hit my head. All is well though! We can continue on."

I looked at Vespera, I could tell it was something more to the story than she let on, but we continued on anyways.

* * *

Seele held me after our meeting was dismissed, "Vespera, you did not speak up like I expected. You will speak up tomorrow, or I will talk to the headmistress about all of this."

I shrugged, "Do what you wish Seele, I'm not talking about anything, especially when nothing is wrong."

With that, I went back into my room. Sure, I might have nearly died tonight, but it's nothing. They wouldn't know what happened back then.

I laid in bed and looked up at Jaelah's empty bed. It was lonely without any of the other girls here. I began putting my silencing wards up, only to notice they weren't working. I tapped my wand in the air, hoping for the time, it wouldn't work. "They spell blocked my room," I whispered to myself.

I couldn't sleep if I didn't have my wards up, someone would hear. I would have to stay awake.

 _I was lying in bed and someone jerked me out, "Come on, little girl. Let's play."_

" _No, I don't want to! Help me!"_

" _Not so fast, can't have you giving us away." I couldn't speak anymore. I couldn't see. I was in the dark. I tried to fight back, I tried to yell, but all around there was silence._

I felt one of them shaking me. "Vespera! Vespera, don't let it get you. Come on, wake up."

I shot upwards in my bed, I had accidentally fallen asleep into my worst nightmare, again. Once again, Cenek had found me.

He wiped the tears from my face, "I'm sorry they put wards up around all of Smaragd. None of us can do magic here now. You're still safe though, and I won't tell the others about this, okay? Try to rest. I know sleep will be hard, at least try to relax." I closed my eyes and nodded, Cenek continued talking, "Everyone thinks you have it easy, don't they. But you don't, because you care so deeply for others, that you forget to care for yourself. You wake up in the middle of the night, and you've seen Jaelah awake. You hope she's okay, but you know she doesn't want anyone to know she's hurting too. So, you just keep an eye on her. You know Bailey misses you more than anything, so you hang out with her all the time, so you can make up for the years lost. You know my family doesn't think I'm the best, so you take me in as your friend. Vespera, I know you're hurting, Jaelah knows you're hurting, and Bailey knows you're hurting. We do care about you, and when you're ready we'll be here." He kissed my forehead, "They won't hurt you anymore."

I shook my head, "Thank you, Cenek." I laid down and rolled over onto my side. They wouldn't know. They couldn't know. Cenek left and I laid here alone again.

I pulled out my orb and stared into it, only being shown nothing in return. I had no happiness.

* * *

It was December 22nd. I woke up and spelled my face again, I got dressed. I ate, I smiled, I worked out, everything. When it was finally night, and time for our meeting, I wasn't ready.

Seele went through the list of names to be expected. Most people said their usual. I had my orb in front of me, the one Jaelah had given to me. I held onto it for strength.

"Vespera Salazar-Malfoy."

I looked up, "Jaelah gave me this orb for Christmas when I was 11, my first year at Hogwarts. It's meant to always show the holders happiest memories." I looked into it, and still nothing, "It used to show hours and hours of memories, but slowly, it's become nothing. Now as I stare into it, it's just a round glass ball of nothingness. I see right through it. It can't even find my happiness anymore."

Cenek took my hand, "Vespera, it's okay. Remember, I'm here for you."

I looked at Seele and she nodded, "I was in my first year of Hogwarts, I'd already been injured once. I had made it through though, it was only quidditch. It happened the night we got back from winter break. I received a note from my best friend, he was in a different house, so we didn't see each other much. I agreed to our late-night meeting and at midnight I went to see him. Before I got to the stairs to take me, I was grabbed. They dragged me into a room and blindfolded me. They tried to break my wand, they stole that from me too, they couldn't break it though. They broke my ribs. I tried to fight back but they just grabbed me and cut my hair off. They kicked my face, started cutting my skin open. I could hear what they wanted to do to me, they continued cutting my skin, my clothes. I begged for them to stop. They told me what happened, how they got the note, why they stole me away, everything. I couldn't just black out. I heard everything, I felt everything they did. They grabbed my bleeding leg, they left bruises all over me. Then... they took the only thing I never expected anyone to unwillingly take. They raped me, and it was so painful. They enjoyed it, you could hear their enjoyment. They became frantic in all they were doing. They hurt me more to cover up the evidence of what they did. I almost died there. Somehow, they found me, the professors, and they sent me to the hospital. I was supposed to recover. I didn't though. Something was wrong, and they couldn't make me walk again. They couldn't fix my insides. Well, they could have but it's simply not done in the wizarding world. I stayed there in the muggle world for seven months waiting. I got sicker, bloated, typical medical terms they tell someone. They took _it_ out finally, I could begin officially rehabilitating. I stayed two more months, and finally they let me go. I went back to school, no one knew exactly what happened. I smiled and went on. Everything would be okay... right?"

I stopped and Cenek gave me a questioning look, "What was wrong that it had to take seven months before they could fix you?"

I gave him a side glance, "They hurt me a lot, Cenek. They made me pregnant. I didn't think it was possible. Going on twelve years old I was, in the world I grew up in I never thought of someone being pregnant that early on. It's not uncommon in the wizarding world. Just think of it, how pure and innocent that child would be, if allowed to carry to term. They kept it, so it could go off and be a great wizard. They let it live, because I didn't get a say in it. I was the one who was tortured, who is still tortured every night with nightmares of it all, and I didn't get a say in what happened to me? The world is cruel. Now I can still barely walk, I have nightmares, I don't even have any happiness left to show! What's the point of all of this?!"

I rolled over and pushed myself up and went into my dorm slamming the door and laying on my bed.

I heard the door creak open and back closed, a voice whispered, "Why did you never tell me this happened, Vespera?"

I looked up, Jaelah was staring right at me, shedding the same tears as I.


	13. Chapter 12: Christmas Eve Eve and Beyond

I heard the door creak open and back closed, a voice whispered, "Why did you never tell me this happened Vespera?"

I looked up, Jaelah was staring right at me, shedding the same tears as I.

I looked at her and shook my head, "You weren't supposed to be back yet."

She shrugged, "Erikk was worried, Cenek was worried, heck, even Chadwick was worried. I convinced my parents to let me come back early so I could be with you."

I stared at her, "You just wanted to be with Erikk more; get away from Harmony."

She smiled, "Well, you aren't wrong. I do care for you though, Vespera. Why didn't you tell me what those low lifes did to you?"

"Why would I? What's the worst that could happen? Nothing, they had been punished. The officials knew what happened. They decided nothing would happen. Face it Jaelah, that's the world we're in today. Nothing will happen to them."

"I care though, and this is something big to hide from us all," she stepped closer to me, as if she was going to hug me.

I backed up, closer to the door. "Don't touch me Jae, I can't. Everyone keeps thinking that if I talk about it, I will be better. I won't Jaelah. I will break, and there will be nothing left to build up from. If I talk about it with specifics, they will know, and they will officially kill me. I will continue to fight this on my own, and I shouldn't have even brought it up. I should just go obliviate everyone, make sure they don't remember what I said."

I turned around to walk out and Jaelah grabbed my arm, "Your obliviate spells suck, you would make them all brain dead."

I pulled my wrist away, "Let me go, please." I whispered to her.

She nodded, and I left. I walked out of the common room, out of the building, and to the highest point I could find. I looked around at everything and wondered how I could have let my life spiral out of control.

I felt the snow start to fall, and I let it cover me (and my warmth spell) as I blended into the dark night.

* * *

I sat up the next morning, covered in snow. I walked back to the castle and straight to the showers to warm up. I painted my nails a bright red and made an appearance that no one would forget. I wasn't going to be the weak girl from last night. Mind you, I mostly still had the same appearance as usual just with more determination. No one was in the common room, so I went back to the dining hall and found the people who had stayed eating breakfast. I walked to my usual spot, next to Jaelah and Cenek, and sat down. I picked up a banana while also putting hot oatmeal into my bowl.

I looked back and forth from Cenek, Jaelah, and Erikk, who were all staring at me. "What, is it my face?"

They shook their heads and Erikk spoke up, "Well, you kind of vanished last night and no one knew where you went. Now you come in here and well, you don't look the same Vespera."

I shrugged, "Maybe I'm just tired of people feeling pity on me. I'm done with that, so let's move on. We have two days until Christmas. What's the game plan?"

"Tomorrow we'll leave here and go to my house, I guess," Cenek shrugged. "If you girls want, we can go over some battle strategies for your next fight?"

I grinned, "Tell me how you fight, Cenek, then teach me how to go against it."

"Only if you do the same for me, Vespera."

I nodded, "Let's go then. Come on Jaelah, we have a group to defeat."

The three of us went downstairs to the fighting rooms. "I want to teach you guys a spell that's meant for seventh years to learn, but since you guys won't be here then, well, you'll appreciate it. Who wants to be my demonstration?"

I stepped up, "Let's go then."

He pointed his wand at me, and while he moved his arm as if his wand would stab me if he had been closer, he said confidently, "Anzeigen furcht."

I waited for something to happen, I looked down at my body, nothing. I looked back up at a shocked Cenek, "Are you sure you know how that spell works?"

He frowned and turned to Erikk, repeating his actions he spoke, "Anzeigen furcht!" Erikk grasped his head and fell to the ground crying. "Yeah it works."

Jaelah ran to Erikk and held him, "What was that?"

"It's a spell that makes it seem some of your worst fears are reality," Cenek explained. "It literally means displaying fear or something like that."

I shrugged, "No wonder that didn't work, I already live everyday with my worst fears, sorry to have found the loophole in your spell work."

Jaelah stood straight, "I need to know what it is, do it to me."

Cenek nodded and repeated the spell for the third time. Jaelah didn't seem like she had been doing anything, but then I saw a tear roll down her face. I walked to her and hugged her, "I'm sorry Jaelah."

Cenek nodded, "Well, let's start to teach, shall we?"

We nodded, then I looked at him, "Cenek! Your chest it's bleeding!"

He looked down, "Oh, it is. It's your fault you know."

I turned to Jaelah and Erikk, both of whom were covered in blood. "If you would only tell the world what happened to you, this wouldn't have happened," Jaelah said staring straight at me.

"No, no no no no no. I'm sorry! This isn't my fault!"

Erikk grinned, "You mudblood, you deserved it all, for pretending who you are, and now we'll all die because of you."

I wept into my hands and fell onto the ground. I was shaking with sobs.

"Vespera, come on, snap out of it!" I heard Cenek say. I looked up, the three were looking at me worried, "The spell hit you pretty hard, do you want to go to the infirmary?"

I shook my head, "I'm fine. Show it to me. I need to be able to use that spell."

He nodded, and that is how we spent our Christmas Eve Eve.

* * *

On December 25th, we were at the Knolle Hole eating breakfast. Cenek came downstairs and whispered into my ear, "After breakfast, you're coming with me."

I nodded and continued eating my pancakes. Afterwards, Cenek pulled my arm and dragged me upstairs. I could hear behind us, "Darling, don't take too long with your love business, we do plan on opening presents soon."

My face lit up bright red, I was not ready to do ANYTHING serious with Cenek, we weren't even a thing. Cenek pulled me into his room, pushed me toward his bed, and closed the door. "Okay Vespera," he turned and looked at me, "why are you so red?"

"Um... it's just, I'm not ready for, you know, any relationship?"

Cenek's eyes opened wide as he burst into laughter, "You really thought? Oh, my Vespera, you are a hoot! I have no intentions of doing anything with you without having a proper talk about it first. Talking about things is important, which is why I brought you up here."

I looked at him confused, as he continued, "You've been acting different for the past few months, and I can't get you alone ever." He pulled out a little box, one that a piece of jewelry came in. He handed it to me, "Open it?"

I pulled the little bow and popped open the box It was a necklace with what seemed to be a stone filled with water. You could tell that it was enchanted, as the water kept swirling around, and occasionally a fish would show up. Looped around the stone was a leather net, holding the stone onto the necklace portion. "It's gorgeous, but why?"

Cenek blushed a little, "Well, firstly, it'll help calm your emotions. Its waters are moved by the holder's emotions, and it'll try to calm them. I know your life has been difficult lately, and I thought this may help you sort everything out?"

"Thank you, Cenek. I appreciate it, really," I pulled it out and put it around my neck, "But nothing is wrong, remember?"

He shook his head, "I know there is Vespera, and I want to help you figure it all out. Try to pretend out there, but when it's just me and you, can we be real? Because I miss the real Vespera, the one that doesn't put on this grand show for everyone."

I nodded, "Okay, deal." I kept waiting for him to speak, but he didn't. He said "Firstly" so where was his Secondly? After a moment, I could tell something was still on his mind. "What, Cenek?"

He shook his head, "Nothing, it's nothing. Just remember what I said before, I'll be your helper when you're down. I'll protect you as much as I can, okay Vespera?"

I smiled at him, "Thank you, Cenek. I appreciate it." I could read his mind to see what else there was for him to say, but I didn't, because I wanted him to feel safe.

We went back downstairs and opened presents from one another. Jaelah had gotten me a pair of black heels; apparently, I needed to be taller. I had gotten her a pot, because she wanted to go find some plant and start growing it. I shrugged at her reaction to the pot, "It won't let you kill the plant; we know how your skills of not killing things are."

She stuck her tongue out at me, "I haven't killed you yet."

"I haven't eaten your cake yet," I grinned.

"Of course, you're allergic- wait. No, you're not. You just ate cake last night. You lied to me Vespera?!"

I shrugged again, "I didn't want to get a stomach virus."

Erikk looked at Cenek, "So, what'd you get for Vespera? You are aware you're supposed to get her something, right?"

I shook my head, "He really didn't have to get me anything, but here's this for you, Cenek." I handed him a box which he opened.

He started pulling book after book out, about teaching and medical things, "This is wonderful Vespera! Thank you! I'll cherish them greatly and look forward to reading them all. And learning Russian?"

I shrugged, "The bookstore lady said it was the best book out there, I'm sure you can translate it."

"Cenek, this is when you hand her the gift," Chadwick said nudging his brother.

Cenek mumbled, "I already did," as his face reddened.

"Well, what was it?" Chadwick poked him, "Come on, tell us."

I could see Cenek being uncomfortable with the attention, so I spoke up, "He gave me this necklace." Chadwick, Erikk, and Jaelah all looked at Cenek and me with a shocked expression. "What?" I asked them.

"Did you really, Cenek?" Chadwick laughed and patted him on the back, "Who would have thought that you'd be the first twin to break that out!"

Jaelah stared me down aggressively and I focused to read her thoughts. _"It's a tradition for the Knolles to get a stone when they're born. It'll change to their emotions and when they feel like they've grown from the family enough and have their own life, well they give it to their significant other."_

I frowned, "It's not what you all think, honestly. We talked about it and neither of us are ready for a relationship other than that of friends."

Cenek nodded his head in agreement and Erikk spoke up, "Well that's dumb. Cenek, what if you fall in love with another girl, then you have nothing to give to her!"

Cenek shrugged, "If I fall in love with another girl, then she'll have me to care for her and won't need a stone to help her. Vespera doesn't have that, she's in need of the necklace more than anyone else is."

I smiled at him and squeezed his hand, "Thanks, Cenek."

We continued opening presents, which took a while with all the siblings there, then we went back to our day. Jaelah and I went to practice our spell work (on Erikk of course), while getting pointers from Cenek.

"You know, it's weird that you're giving us pointers on how to beat you," Jaelah remarked.

Cenek shrugged, "I know you won't beat me though, even with my pointers you're still only third years, while I'm in my last year of schooling. I've had much more practice than both of you."

I shrugged then pointed my wand at him, and blue sparks came flying out. He whipped out his wand and threw a shield up. "Your colorful tricks aren't going to work on me, remember, professional duelist?"

"What?" Jaelah shrieked. "You mean you're THAT Cenek?!"

He bowed, "The one and only."

Jaelah laughed, "I thought you'd be tougher than you are. So, why'd you disappear off the planet? Everyone assumed you had died."

I poked her side, "Don't, Jaelah." She looked at me worriedly and I nodded, our silent communication being enough. "Well, I'm done with practicing, because I think I'll beat you, Cenek. I'm going to go get ready for dinner. I sniffed the air then held my nose, "You guys do too, you stink." With that, we all took showers, ate Christmas dinner (some sort of deer? I would ask Jaelah what it was later), then went to sleep.

Tomorrow we would be back in classes, and it would almost be time for our next battle.

* * *

 **Honestly, you won't get an update for a while. We have to write 13 through 15. We'll try.**

Reviews, follows, and favorites make me want to type more quicker though ;)


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